A tangent today:
Why does major college football not have a playoff system? I don't think anyone can convince me that the Bowl system, as it is, is the best thing we could have.
Imagine if there was an eight team playoff this year. Based on rankings before the Big XII and SEC championships, you would get:
#1 Alabama v. #8 Penn State
#2 Oklahoma v. #7 Texas Tech (rematch on a neutral field)
#3 Texas v. #6 Utah
#4 Florida v. #5 USC
What college football fan wouldn't want to watch each of these games? The game with the least appeal would be Texas/Utah because Utah is not generally considered a perennial powerhouse. But with Colt McCoy, a Heisman candidate, captaining Texas - it should generate a good amount of interest.
As far as the bowls, keep them the same. Take the top six bowls (Rose, Fiesta, Orange, Sugar, Cotton - once it's in the new Cowboys stadium, and... Peach?) and rotate who gets 1st round games and who gets 2nd round games. Then, one of those bowls would get the national championship game as well.
As far as the money-making goes, every six years, one of these major cities/bowls would get THREE bowl games. Talk about a shot in the arm for local economies. It would also give a more legitimate chance for a team from a "mid-major" conference a shot at the title. Plus, if the two best teams in the nation are in the same conference, they are more likely to get to play for it all.
Seriously, why isn't the NCAA doing this?
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It's not happening for the exact reason you mention: as of right now, there are like 30 cities that have a vested interested in hosting bowl games. The amount of hotel + dining + etc revenue that each bowl game generates for its host city is too important to lose.
Find a way to preserve 85% of the bowl games we have (15% stink anyways) while incorporating a playoff system, and you could be on to something. The key is allowing enough time for people to plan their travel. For instance, if I were misinformed and for some reason supported Texas, I could already be planning to attend a bowl game in January as one of two or three cities. Likewise with Texas Tech: Raiders can already book their Cotton Bowl reservations. A playoff system makes it more difficult for fans to travel (i.e. for cities to make money) to support their team.
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