Replacing the Bowl Coalition

Here is my dream replacement for the current BCS system in US college football. I don't understand why this is so hard.

I think they ought to have a tournament of all the conference champions (sorry, Notre Dame!). All conferences should have a championship game to minimize dubious tie-breaking scenarios. Seeding in the tournament of champions can be based on other criteria (strength of schedule, prettiness of cheerleaders, quality of local bbq), but the key criterion is winning on the field. The tournament games are played around the country, ultimately coming down to a New Year's Day championship game in the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, or Orange Bowl on a rotating basis.

I'm too lazy to count the conferences, so if they don't add up to a power of 2, you can have at large bids (i.e. Georgia, Missouri, and Kansas this year), or you can have byes for the conference champions with really good BBQ. All conference champions are guaranteed higher seeding and more geographically reasonable first round games than at-large teams, so for example Hawaii would get Kansas someplace on the West Coast or in Hawaii.

All the teams that don't make the tournament can still go to a bowl, which will still be shown on ESPN, etc. The Motor City Bowl can still go on.

It's not perfect of course but who would care? The primary criterion for getting in the tournament is unambiguous, so teams know what they have to do. There are at-large bids to give a few teams second chances, but the seeding and locations will favor the conference champions. Fans get grist for the "who's the best conference" mill and more high quality games that actually mean something (unlike all BCS bowls - 1 these days). And it ends in a great venue in a great vacation spot on New Year's Day like it should, so you can enjoy the game while full of fried chicken and black-eyed peas like the Founding Fathers intended.

Prof. Richards adds the following:
"Generally speaking, I'd agree. I don't think I would allow a non-conference winner in, though -- tough luck, Georgia! I might have a play-in round for minor conferences, like the NCAA basketball has.

Round 1: Fiesta, Cotton, Peach, Citrus. Sorry, the Fiesta Bowl is a newcomer.
Round 2: Sugar and Orange.
Round 3 (Final): Rose. Just like the old days, when the "national championship game" WAS the Rose bowl.

You could even have tie ins, like having the Pac-10 champ always play the Big 10 champ in the Fiesta Bowl, the SEC Champ Play the ACC champ in the Peach Bowl, etc.

And I would restore the full name to the Poulan-Weedeater Independence Bowl. "

America has spoken.