Wish list for next iteration of the College Football Playoff: 8 teams? No more conference championship games?

The next iteration of the College Football Playoff is on the way, but — like everything else in this deranged sport right now — it’s a temporary solution. The 12-team playoff that begins next year is only a two-year endeavor; everything — even, theoretically, the number of teams involved — could change by the 2026 season. You know, because this sport hasn’t seen enough upheaval lately.

Starting next season and for the next two years, the top six ranked conference champions will receive an invitation, along with the six highest-ranked at-large teams. But what about the next contract? What’s coming, what’s going, and what would we all like to see? It’s all up in the air, but here are a few ideas for streamlining and improving what ought to be the best sporting event in America.

Cut back to eight teams. Putting toothpaste back into the tube, getting the horse back into the barn, coaxing the genie back in the bottle … pick your cliche, it applies to several of these suggestions. There’s no way college football will turn its back on more revenue, and going from 11 playoff games in 2024-25 back to seven is a non-starter. But this is a “more isn’t always better” wish, given the blowouts we saw unfold prior to the Rose Bowl. Until college football’s talent gets more dispersed, those four opening-round games are likely to be double-digit blowouts.

Get rid of conference championship games. It’ll never happen given the revenue these championships generate, but the presence of a postseason-before-the-postseason only adds to the length of a growing slate of games. In the 2024 season, the first round of games will be on Dec. 20 and 21 (a Friday and Saturday) in the home stadiums of the higher-seeded teams. Why so late? Most students have already left for the winter. Yes, eliminating the conference championships would move the first-round games into the heart of final exam season, but if you think that’s a real concern for college power-brokers, I’ve got a truckload of Alabama-Texas national championship T-shirts to sell you.

Put more games on campus. Yes, this is another never-gonna-happen wish, but what’s a wish list without some reaches? The quarterfinals and semifinals for '24 and '25 will rotate between the traditional New Year’s Six bowls — Rose, Sugar, Peach, Orange, Cotton and Fiesta. Except for the Rose Bowl, they’ll all be played in behemoth NFL palaces. Why not give each of the four top-seeded teams a chance to host a playoff game of their own? Yes, weather will be a factor … but not for those of us watching on TV.

Turn opening-round games into bowl games. The divide between the playoff and bowl games is already wide; when the 12-team CFP arrives, it’ll be a chasm. Granted, nobody should shed a tear for the plight of bowl games, the most obvious example of college football’s endless revenue grasping bloat. Still, there is one possible solution to salvage a bit of bowl tradition: Designate the opening-round games as “bowls” all their own. That would mean host cities giving up their bowls, if that matters to them, but the Super Bowl rotates cities every year and seems to do well enough. Plus, imagine the anarchy of a Pop-Tarts Bowl in, say, Baton Rouge. (Sidelight: If the bowls are going to survive, they’ll need to get weird, like the Pop-Tarts Bowl, and also pay the players.)

Ditch the December early signing period and transfer portal opening. This is much more of a bowl issue than a playoff issue for now. But keeping players in-house for another few weeks would preserve the continuity of a season and hopefully avoid nightmares like the combined six points scored by No. 5 FSU and No. 7 Ohio State, both depleted by transfers and opt-outs. There will be plenty of time after the playoff to focus on next season.

Figure out the Rose Bowl start time. One of the most prized slots on the entire television calendar outside of the Super Bowl is the Rose Bowl’s traditional 5 p.m. ET slot on New Year’s Day. The Rose’s ferocious protection of that specific time slot — because it allows for the sunset on the San Gabriel Mountains at the start of the fourth quarter, of course — has hindered playoff creation and expansion for years. It’s why the Sugar Bowl started at almost 9 p.m. ET on Monday night and ran well past midnight. The Rose Bowl will host quarterfinal games in the 2024 and 2025 seasons, meaning you’ll be staying up late the next two Jan. 1's, too.

Power-rank selection criteria. The College Football Playoff selection committee was able to skate on accountability this year because they had so many different criteria for inclusion — conference champions, most deserving, injuries to key personnel — that they could cherry-pick whichever ones they wanted to get the desired result, admitting Alabama and leaving undefeated Florida State and astoundingly talented Georgia on the outside looking in. Next time around, put this in black-and-white: Which is more valuable, a conference championship or a good matchup? Do key injuries count more or less than a gaudy record?

College football is America’s most chaotic sport, and that’s part of its attraction. But it spends too much time running in circles when it ought to be running downfield. The 12-team playoff is a strong start, but it’ll require tweaks to make it the spectacle it ought to be.