there is no rational argument against a playoff system, only emotional "I like the tradition of the bowls", "teh regular season wouldn't mean anything" arguments, the latter of which would be untrue anyway.
Personally, I think 16 team playoff would be ideal. 1aa, ii and iii have 16 team playoffs (I think one or more may now be 24 teams), so any argument of playing too many games is completely without merit. Go back to 11 games and only 3-4 teams are playing 16 games in a season (which is what happens in lower divisions).
All conference winners get auto bids which leaves 5 at large bids. Typically the first team left out is ranked about 12th or so under this scenario. Any team ranked 13th has no bitching rights IMO, don't lose 3 games and you can be in. First round games are played at home of the higher ranked team and then you can work in the bowls into the quarters, semis and final game.
Anything less than 16 teams and it is still the playground of the BCS conferences with only 2 at large bids typically going to 2nd place teams in the BCS conferences. 16 teams guarantees access to conference winners of all teams, without 16, those teams are still playing for nothing. An added side benefit would be that big time teams wouldn't be afraid to schedule other big time teams and we would again see in-season games like OU-Miami, USC-OU, OSU-UT, etc. There just aren't big inter-conference games like there used to be as teams fear losing and costing themselves a national title shot. Mack Brown went so far as to say he wouldn't schedule against a team like Ohio St again b/c of that specific reason. That fear is gone now. Win your conference and that loss doesn't matter.
Personally, I think 16 team playoff would be ideal. 1aa, ii and iii have 16 team playoffs (I think one or more may now be 24 teams), so any argument of playing too many games is completely without merit. Go back to 11 games and only 3-4 teams are playing 16 games in a season (which is what happens in lower divisions).
All conference winners get auto bids which leaves 5 at large bids. Typically the first team left out is ranked about 12th or so under this scenario. Any team ranked 13th has no bitching rights IMO, don't lose 3 games and you can be in. First round games are played at home of the higher ranked team and then you can work in the bowls into the quarters, semis and final game.
Anything less than 16 teams and it is still the playground of the BCS conferences with only 2 at large bids typically going to 2nd place teams in the BCS conferences. 16 teams guarantees access to conference winners of all teams, without 16, those teams are still playing for nothing. An added side benefit would be that big time teams wouldn't be afraid to schedule other big time teams and we would again see in-season games like OU-Miami, USC-OU, OSU-UT, etc. There just aren't big inter-conference games like there used to be as teams fear losing and costing themselves a national title shot. Mack Brown went so far as to say he wouldn't schedule against a team like Ohio St again b/c of that specific reason. That fear is gone now. Win your conference and that loss doesn't matter.
