Alternate Universe Playoff Theory
I loved this alternate reality from John Nestor. As he laid it out, a thrilling, bowl-based tournament of upsets, close shaves, and expected championship performances makes for a thrilling December full of college football. Gone are the dud matchups and obvious pretenders (oh c'mon, Syrcause); instead, all principal grievances are settled between the lines, and mighty Auburn and Cal get their shots but ultimately don't prevail.
This concept leaves some important questions of tradition unanswered (i.e., would the Rose Bowl ever reliably feature Big 10/Pac 10 matchups again). Also, I don't really know if players can be expected to be anything other than full time athletes (forget classes, books, all that "education" crap) if their schools end up in 14, 15, and even 16 game regular seasons. Sure, there's been plenty of talk about college football playoff solutions in the past few seasons -- but somehow this piece helped me visualize this tournament as a December Madness plan that could work. There's just the small matter of getting the military/industrial complex that is college trustees, bowl organizers, sponsors, and the NCAA on board.