[Just211]

IMO, it should be set up more like High School,

there should be 16 conferences
each conference would have a championshipg game
then the winner of each conference would play a winner from another conference, and so on, until one team was left. it would be set up geographically to ensure good fan support each round. Sure as it went on, the game would possibly get further away from a school, but the game would be SO important that you know they'd travel well.
And the formula would stay the same every year, so the same games(bowls) would have teams from the same regions every year to ensure some continuity.
And you cant say it would belittle the regular season, because everything would be based on your conference record(not the polls). Most teams would have a 2 out of 12 chance to make it to there conference championship, so they couldn't afford to lose.