Standardize a 10 game regular season(9 game conference schedule). Let teams do whatever they want with the 10th game(rivalry, cupcake, etc), it won’t factor into the CFP admittance.
For the P4 Conferences:
1 and 2 seeds get auto-bids to the CFP and they play a CCG for seeding. Winners get seeds 1-4, losers are still in, but fall into the pool and can get seeded anywhere 5-16.
Seeds 3-6 in each conference get put into a 4 team bracket with the winner advancing to the CFP. One team from each conference in each bracket…so as follows:
Bracket 1: SEC 3 seed, ACC 4 seed, BIG 5 seed, BIG12 6 seed
Bracket 2: ACC 3 seed, BIG 4 seed, BIG12 5 seed, SEC 6 seed.
Bracket 3 and 4 continue the pattern.
3 seed hosts the 6 seed, 4 seed hosts 5 seed. Then winners play with higher seed hosting.
If the SEC is really the best, they can put 6 teams in the CFP(2 Auto-bids + winning each bracket). They have to prove it on the field though.
This gets you to 12. Highest rated G5 champion gets an auto bid. Then 2nd highest rated conference champ plays 5th, 3rd plays 4th. Winners also get in.
Final spot is a wildcard. Give it to the highest rated team that didn’t get in. Committee then seeds it 1-16(P4 Conferences champs get 1-4, the rest get 5-16).
Gives every team a shot, but also lets any P4 conference potentially get up to 7 teams in if they can prove their superiority on the field. G5 conferences could potentially get 2 teams in.
How it would look this year:
1. Oregon
2. Georgia
3. ASU
4. Clemson
Auto-bids not in top 4:
5. Boise St
6. Texas
7. Penn St
8. SMU
9. Iowa St.
Bracket 1:
3. Tennessee vs 6. Georgia Tech
4. Colorado vs 5 Illinois
Bracket 2:
3. Miami vs 6. Iowa
4. Alabama vs 5. Baylor
Bracket 3:
3. Indiana vs 6. TCU
4. Syracuse vs 5. South Carolina
Bracket 4:
3. BYU vs 6. Texas A&M
4. Ohio St vs 5. Louisville
Then:
Army vs Jacksonville St
Marshall vs Ohio
Notre Dame gets the wildcard bid.
Final seeds:
1 Oregon vs 16 Marshall
2 Georgia vs 15 Army
3 ASU vs 14 South Carolina
4 Clemson vs 13 Iowa St
5 Texas vs 12 Alabama
6 Penn St. vs 11 SMU
7 Notre Dame vs 10 Boise St
8 Ohio St. vs 9 Tennessee