I am torn but evolving ( ha ha) on this.
Anything to NOT be like the NFL has been my opinion.
But as Sam said so well- this is not working. It is creating a monopoly for one thing, and no playoff should EVER be this subjective.
I would like to see the 5 conf champs, The top Group of 5 Team and 2 wild cards based on formula or poll. Reduce the regular season to accommodate the playoff season, and mandate that all leagues play the same number of conference games.
this would level the recruiting to a high degree and crest way more excitement. $$ would follow.
I also would like to see the 5 conference champs in the playoffs; with the caveat that champ needs to be ranked in the top 12 to be eligible.
I don't want the playoffs to race to 8 just because opinion theories make it it seem better than 4. Let's try 6 teams for 6~ish years and see how that does. I think a 6 team playoff can work, and cover all the bases that 8 does without having to include two more possibly non-elite teams.
I also don't think we need the conferences to be mirror images of each other in the amount of games played, but have an external qualifier that says each P5 team needs to play 10 P5 opponents. Whether it's in their conference or out. SEC has a point that a lot of their teams plays an P5 OOC opponent so they don't need to play another conference game. It's when OSU (or B1G, or Pac, or B12) play a high profile opponent and that extra conference game that the resumes start to look different. So, if we have an everyone in P5 needs a minimum amount of P5 opponents that covers the making the schedule similar enough to me.
If we just adjust our focus a bit; now including the Conference Championship Game, it actually makes the playoffs a 10 - 13* team affair. The 1st round of the playoffs is just for the conference title too. I really don't need to see the 2nd place team in a conference, or the tallest midget to make the playoffs complete. But leaving out one of the P5 champs because of "beauty pageant" reasons doesn't sit right with me.
*we have a minimum of 10 teams that are playing for the P5 conference titles. But a G5 team may be included in that 6th spot, so their championship game is included, or that 6th spot may be to a non-conference winner, and they get a bye the 1st round. That said, I'm also a big fan of updating Championship Saturday to Seeding Saturday, it would give that extra data point for a 2nd place conference teams resume.