The correct answer is:

[All-American]

A 12 team playoff.

Every conference champion ranked in the top 25 gets an automatic bid, and the rest of the seeds are filled out with at-large bids, given to the highest ranked teams not already in. This year, the automatic bids would go to:

Ohio State (#1)
Florida (#2)
Louisville (#5)
Oklahoma (#7)
USC (#8)
Boise State (#9)
Wake Forest (#15)
BYU (#19)

The four remaining bids would go to:

Michigan (#3)
LSU (#4)
Wisconsin (#6)
Auburn (#10)

And would be seeded thusly:

1. Ohio State
2. Florida
3. Michigan
4. LSU
5. Louisville
6. Wisconsin
7. Oklahoma
8. USC
9. Boise State
10. Auburn
11. Wake Forest
12. BYU

Round one would play seeds 5-12, giving seeds 1-4 a bye. This would feature:

#5 Louisville vs. #19 BYU
#6 Wisconsin vs. #15 Wake Forest
#7 Oklahoma vs. #10 Auburn
#8 USC vs. #9 Boise State

Just for simplicity's sake, let's assume the top seeds win all games. The next round would feature:

#1 Ohio State vs. #8 USC
#2 Florida vs. #7 Oklahoma
#3 Michigan vs. #6 Wisconsin
#4 LSU vs. #5 Louisville

then

#1 Ohio State vs. #4 LSU
#2 Florida vs. #3 Michigan

then

#1 Ohio State vs. #2 Florida


A few observations:

No team deserving a chance at a national championship is left out. If you are #11 Notre Dame, you should have won your TWO games that were lost this season. Hawaii shouldn't have lost to Oregon State. You win your conference or get in the top 10-- that's a pretty fair shakeup.

Unless there are upsets, no team plays more than three games; and only two play more than two. In no situation does any team play more than four. You have no reason to complain about missing too many weeks of school for games.

And finally, how many college fans are NOT interested in ANY of these games? Even the most "mismatched", BYU v. Louisville, would have a lot of people watching, and BYU would have a chance to make some noise.

You think March Madness would be big? December Delirium would be off the hook.