Trying to consolidate NCAA and clean up top tier football here, no alternate designs, just home and road. Dropping down to 80 schools in 8 conferences, simply put, win your conference, you get into the 12 team playoff. With 10 schools in each conference you can play all 9 conference opponents, and 3 non-conference games leaving room for out of conferences rivalry games (FSU/Florida, Iowa/Iowa State, etc). The rest of current 1-A schools who didn't make the cut would move down to 1-AA. This maintains the tradition and importance of rivalries and conferences / regionality to the game. As a note, to solve some money issues in the sport, I'd basically do a 80 team wide TV deal with an even split, and of that TV money, you share with players a fixed amount, the same for all players. Additionally good/popular schools can get a bonus for national TV selected games, which they can use for facilities etc, but not player stipends. Ditch the transfer portal completely, with the only exception for transfers is when a head coach bails on a program. And NIL becomes heavily regulated for what it was supposed to be, stuff like national endorsement deals, etc.
Basically taking the existing power 4 conferences with their realignments (67 schools), plus Notre Dame, and the most likely schools that would move up. Conferences like the Big Ten, and SEC retain their traditional schools, ACC, Big XII, and Pac 10 look pretty similar, a football sort of Big East, and stronger versions of AAC and MWC. No need for conference championship games with all teams in a conference playing each other. You maintain regionality and rivalries, conferences games matter, and you get a playoff for a true national championship game, but don't lose the things that made the sport and regular season great to begin with.
For the playoff, the top 4 conference champs get a bye, and seeds 5 thru 12 play on campus, the remaining 4 conference champs get home games, even if they aren't seeded above the at large teams. First round would be on campus games, and to keep the bowl tradition alive I would use the Cotton, Fiesta, Music City and Peach Bowl for the regional quarterfinals, with the Sugar and Orange Bowl as the semi finals and Rose Bowl for the championship on New Year's Day.
American Athletic Conference:
Taking 3 of the stronger current AAC schools in Memphis, South Florida, and Tulane and adding back in UCF, SMU, Louisville, and Houston. Baylor, Texas Tech, and TCU fill out the rest of the line up, maintaining some rivalries and fitting in geographically.
Atlantic Coast Conference:
Not the full classic ACC lineup, but maintains the modern conference schools that fit regionally in the south Atlantic.
Big Ten Conference:
Classic Big Ten lineup.
Big XII Conference:
Could probably use a new name, but including most of the original conference members, and adding in Arkansas who has existing rivalries with the Texas schools.
Big East Conference:
This might have actually been what happened to the conference had they let Penn State in years ago and had stronger football power. Adding in Notre Dame, who has strong fan bases in the northeast markets of the Big East territory and was a non-football member in the late 1990s.
Mountain West Conference:
Sort of a mix of the MWC and its old WAC predecessor, adding Colorado who fits regionally.
Pac 10 Conference:
Most of the traditional conference returns, but swapping in San Diego State and Fresno State.
Southeastern Conference:
Traditional 10 SEC rivals.
