The four winners would advance to other bowl games and the winners of those contests would play in the "Granddaddy of Them All", the Rose Bowl, for the national championship.
Some might argue that this would needlessly extend the season and would force athletes to miss school. But under this plan, the season would be extended just two weeks. And since most schools have a long winter break, athletes would not miss classes.
This scenario would give a team such as Wyoming--undefeated but not top-ranked--a chance to prove whether it is worthy of a national championship. This year, Wyoming may post a 12-0 record and be ranked no higher than fifth or sixth nationally.
Others might argue that the tradition of bowl games would be destroyed. Tradition says the winner of the Pac 10 conference should play the winner of the Big Ten conference. And tradition is a good thing.
But tradition, in the case of college football, is not old. It wasn't too long ago, after all, that Harvard played in the Rose Bowl.
Mark Gastineau: phone planet earth.
We miss you, big guy.