PLAYOFFS!?!?! WE'RE TALKING ABOUT PLAYOFFS!?!?!

First of all, I'm a student at the University of Missouri, so I obviously feel quite shafted right now.  Two teams that we beat (Illinois and Kansas) are in better bowls (Rose and Orange) than us (Cotton).  The only team we lost to should be in the National Championship, in my opinion.  Regardless, it has always been my stance that we need a playoff in the Football Bowl Subdivision.  It is the only sport in college that doesn't have a playoff, and there are some pretty lame reasons against it-

1) Regular season games wouldn't matter as much.

Please.  If you have a playoff, you still need to have a good enough record to get into the playoffs, and a higher seed is beneficial.  Regular season games would matter just as much.  You say that one loss can ruin your championship game hopes?  Tell that to LSU who is in with two losses while Hawaii, with zero losses, and Kansas, with one, are sitting this one out.

2) There would be less hype surrounding the postseason.

Do the powers that be in football pay attention to college basketball at all?  March Madness is by far the most popular postseason sporting event.  So much hype is around that event that teachers in classrooms turn on the games in class.  Bosses allow televisions in the office.  People that know nothing about the sport will throw down some cash money to pick Davidson to go to the Final Four.  If anything, a playoff format would create more hype.

3) There is money to be made in the bowl games.

More games = More money.  Sponsors will always pay up.  That is all.

So now that we have all that out of the way, let us get to the format of this playoff system.  It still uses the BCS rankings, since I like the point system they've put together.  Twelve teams get into the playoff, 6 BCS Conference Champs (ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Big East, Pac-10, SEC) and the 6 highest teams in the BCS rankings besides the conference champions.  The high seed always gets home field advantage except in the championship game, which would be at a site determined before the season.  The catch is there is only two teams per conference, my apologies to Florida and Kansas.  Also, teams from the same conference may not play each other in the first round.  About now, you are probably catching on that with 12 teams, there will be three teams standing.  Once again in an effort to reward higher seeds, the highest remaining seed gets a bye week while the lower two battle it out.  This years match-ups would go something like this:

#1 Ohio State vs. #12 Boston College

#2 LSU vs. #11 Illinois

#3 VaTech vs. #10 Arizona State

#4 Oklahoma vs. #9 Hawaii

#5 Georgia vs. #8 West Virginia

#6 Mizzou vs. #7 USC

Every round restructures, so the highest remaining seed always plays the lowest remaining seed and so on.  Looking at this line-up, this already creates much more intriguing match-ups then the BCS Bowls this year.  Illinois' fast, explosive offense facing off against the athleticism of the LSU defense would be a site to see.  Same goes for the Georgia-West Virginia showdown.  Mizzou against USC  would also pin a one of the top passing offenses in college football against one of the greatest defenses in the land.  Ohio State-Boston College would be a great power match-up, with both teams operating similarly.  VaTech-Arizona State would be a battle of the disrespected, as neither team has gotten much love for the jobs they did this year.  And the OU-Hawaii game would put one of the most athletically talented defenses in college football against Hawaii's vaunted offensive powerhouse with OU getting the chance to redeem themselves after last years loss to Boise State.

And we can keep the bowls, too.  Kansas vs. Florida in the Orange Bowl, Wisconsin vs. Clemson in the Rose Bowl, Tennessee vs. Texas in the Fiesta, and South Florida vs. Auburn in the Sugar Bowl.  Plus all of the lower order bowls, it would still be a great postseason.  Have the bowls on weekdays while reserving Saturdays for the big boys to determine the best of the land.

This year has been building up for awhile.  It all started last year with Boise State knocking off national powerhouse OU.  It continued this season with Appalachian State defeating the all mighty Michigan Wolverines.  Parity is approaching in college football and we need to be ready for it.