- Expand to 8 teams.
- Give an automatic bid to the winner of any conference with 18 or more FCS teams.
- Every conference member is required to play 8 conference games.
- Every FCS teams is required to play 11 regular season games with an optional conference game to be decided by each conference.
- Let conferences decide how to choose their champion, and that also means allowing every conference team to play a 12th game on CCG weekend, which should be Thanksgiving week.
If you haven't figured out where this is headed and why, there are presently 125 FCS teams, so there could only be 7 conferences with 18 or more teams. Why 18 teams? Because each conference can have 2 divisions with 9 teams each, and each side would play everyone. Getting rid of the FBS games forces the SEC and the ACC to at least play FCS teams. Conferences can have a full schedule of games on championship weekend, so everyone plays 12 games, whether in the CCG or not, which removes that as an advantage/disadvantage. Also, Notre Dame will have to put on its big boy pants and either join a conference or hope to win the beauty contest. Although there would officially be 8 teams in the playoff, the CCG would serve as a play-in game, so there would really be 14 teams with a shot at making the playoff on CCG weekend, plus whoever is the wildcard. We don't need to force any conferences to add teams or dissolve or whatever because the incentives will already be there to create some super-conferences and ditch the fluff. If the P-5 can mix and match and merge, God bless 'em! Make a couple super-conferences, and if you don't get an invite, you should maybe consider FBS. Within two years the B1G, SEC, and ACC would be at 18 teams, and the PAC would be scrambling to do the same. The Big 12 would be kaput. The AAC and Conference-USA would race to 18, and the rest would fall by the wayside. Within a few years there would be 6 automatic invites to the 6 champs, and 2 wildcards. The rest of the teams would either have to figure out how to make some sort of scrambled up super-conference of 18 teams, but they'd be just as likely to drop down to FCS.
Everybody gets the first weekend in December off to "study for finals." Academics are important, you know. The second weekend in December would be the first round of the playoffs. The top seeds could host, or we could use 4 traditional bowl games. Either one works. The two winners play on New Year's Day, and the other teams can still play some bowl games, if they want, whenever. Same as now, the championship would be the Monday that's at least 7 days later. Let every FCS AD have a vote on who fills out the field of 8. The polls and the playoff committee can go play with themselves. The conferences and bowls would still be intact, and the money would flow.