I don’t get why the BCS or CFP isn’t a good example of settling it on the field. It is settled on the field. You might not agree with the process of how the teams get there but it is settled on the field.
Because I also said that this was the goal of "settling it on the field":
A system where it gets settled "on the field" and there's one, true, undisputed champion.
If we have this much disagreement over the process of how the teams get there, then it's hard to justify it being one, true, undisputed champion.
Clearly the BCS was flawed because it could leave out a potential "best team" when you have 130 FBS teams and only two slots. In 2004 Auburn was undefeated but as there were two other undefeated teams deemed "better", they didn't get a shot. In 2009 you had five undefeated teams (2 G5, one Cincinnati who IIRC was P6 at that time) and only two slots. Sure, I don't think Boise State or TCU would have gotten by Alabama, but Boise State did beat 'Bama in a Suger Bowl a few years prior so it's not out of the realm of possibility.
In the CFP, we're supposed to expand the field to make sure worthy teams are included. Yet the #1 team has only won the entire thing 1 try out of 6. The #4 team has won it 33% of the time. And in both cases, that #4 team had reasons for potential exclusion (2014 OSU because there were two other 1-loss P5 co-champs that they leapfrogged, and 2018 Alabama because they weren't their own conference champion, although less so because there wasn't another 1-loss P5 conference champion available). If the team we all let skate in at the #4 slot wins the whole thing, it kinda makes our ability to determine which are the most "worthy" teams moot. If the #4 team can win it, are we really sure that the #5-6 teams aren't good enough?
You want to settle it on the field? Every P5 conference now has a very clear methodology to determine its own champion. Win your conference, you're in the field. Fill it out with 3 other teams (I favor either formally splitting P5/G5 and going 3 at large, or if you refuse to formally break the G5 away then you give the top-ranked G5 champion 1 berth with 2 at-large selections). So, eight teams.
Yes, sometimes it might mean that the "best team" is beaten by a lesser team. But that already happens with the CFP. If we're right and the #4 team going into the CFP is actually the #4 team in the country, than the best team didn't win. If we're not sure in our ability to rank the top 4 teams in the country going into the CFP, then it blows the whole system out of the water.
Settle it on the field. Win your conference and you have a shot. Everyone else who gets an at large as a beauty pageant should consider themselves lucky, not entitled to be there.
Or go back to a mythical champion decided by polls. That's fine with me, but apparently not most football fans. If you want a playoff and to "settle it on the field", do it right.