I put a lot of thoughts into this -- and came up with what I thought was a logical compromise for both main sides of the argument, the "conference champs only" faction and the "best teams period" faction for a future scenario. What do you think? Warning -- long.

I think 8 is approximately the correct number. But I also don't want to diminish or remove the conference championship games. So, we need to get creative on how we deal with that...

Maybe an 11-team playoff -- where the 5 conference championships are played as currently configured(also forcing the Big12 back to a championship game). Those 5 champions get a first round bye and homefield advantage while the 6 at-larges play the week after conference title games. That should be enough of an at-large pool to not really punish truly deserving teams for losing conference title games. And it still gets us back to 8 by the end of Dec 14ish weekend.

Then, you can play the 4 more games the 21st on the homefield of the highest-rated 4 conference champs. This gets you to a final 4 for 2 playoff games on New Years Day which is exactly how the 4-team playoff is currently configured. You can adjust dates to fit individual years...

Play the round of 10-11 and round of 8 at the home field of the higher-rated teams -- then go to neutral site for the final 4 and championship game.

My ideal tourney would then be:

My team "ranks" in order to set the brackets:

1) FSU

2) Auburn

3) Michigan St

4) Stanford

5) Alabama

6) Baylor

7) Ohio St

8) Mizzou

9) South Carolina, Oregon, or Oklahoma

10) UCF(yes, I'd reward the highest-ranked midmajor champ with the 10-seed -- or otherwise their worthy seed)

So, Conference championships:

Auburn vs Mizzou

Stanford vs Arizona St

Duke vs FSU

Michigan St vs Ohio St

Baylor vs Oklahoma

Meaning that-- how things turned out this year -- what we had was essentially a 13-team playoff -- with Duke, Arizona St, and Oklahoma all having a chance to play themselves into the real tournament and thus essentially already being in the playoffs by making their conference title games. Thus, the "number" of teams essentially in the playoff is basically never a "set" number really. It depends on the number of conference losers whose resume still merits making the playoff...

The next week(first round)

Alabama vs UCF in Tuscaloosa

Ohio St vs Mizzou in Columbus

South Carolina vs Oregon in Columbia (Clemson would generally have an argument as the second ACC team vs 4th SEC team -- but since USCe already beat them decisively, they get the spot. Oklahoma would have an argument currently -- but wouldn't assuming they lost to Baylor in a title game)

Following week(2nd round):

FSU vs winner of South Carolina/Oregon in Tallahassee

Auburn vs winner of Ohio St/Mizzou in Auburn

Michigan St vs winner of Alabama/UCF in East Lansing(again rewarding conference champions by giving them homefield and essentially a bye)

Baylor vs Stanford in WACO

New Years:

FSU/USCe/Oregon vs Baylor/Stanford(Rose Bowl this year)

Auburn/Ohio St/Mizzou vs Michigan St/Alabama/UCF(Sugar Bowl this year)

Title game - winner of those two(in Dallas this year)