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I think the CCG with divisions was the beginning of the end.  I know teams didn't play everyone else in their conference necessarily, but they could have, pre-CCG.  
And there was room for expansion in the Big 8 and ACC.  Or not.  I really think having those brand-name independents floating around, being available, was a great situation for college football.

It was super-regional, there was (in the back end) diversity of offenses, you had more parity than the 70s...I think in terms of health of the sport, it was the best time.

yup

split into divisions where teams didn't play each other (nebraska/oklahoma), conference championship games where an underdog from the other division could crash the party was NOT golden

I voted the BCS era.  I think the easy vote is for nostalgia, and the era you grew up in.  But I think largely the BCS era nailed it.  You had a "realish" championship game, but big bowls still mattered.  You still had plenty of schematic diversity because analytics, using that term broadly, hadnt told us there is actually the smartest way to play.

I was debating 80-91 vs 92-97 until I read your answer and I think you nailed it. The only reason I want to convince myself it's not this timeline is UM's collapse OSU's complete domination of the rivalry, but that biased thinking doesn't discount the truth supporting that take. 

I admit, I didn’t have much affinity for the BCS era.

Maybe it’s because it’s what I came up in, but the undefeated count off was not the best, and it had some irritating structural issues.

I like the idea of the mid 90s and found the 4-team pleasant enough (although some of the vibe-y picks had their issues)

My personal Golden Age is the BCS Era, and that’s not to say it’s due to the BCS. The era itself aligns with my coming of age with football, which started with watching college football with my grandpa during my childhood in Florida, until finishing college fifteen years later in Arizona.

For one, the BCS Era is the college football I grew up with. To quote myself from an earlier post: “...our favorite eras of college football are almost always the eras we grew up with. It’s why the different generations of Star Wars fans – Gen X, Millennials – defend the versions they grew up with – Original Trilogy, Clone Wars. It’s why you might see the elderly restlessly chase youthful urges through unwise romances or unrealistic purchases.” At some point, no matter how much more we keep watching college football, it doesn’t quite have the luster once our youthful fascinations for the sport wane.

Two, I got lucky growing up with Steve Spurrier’s Gators (thanks Grandpa). And extending Spurrier’s tenure through Urban Meyer’s, none of my other teams have come close to the Gator’s enviable success – certainly not my Phoenix teams. Three National Championships and a rare sense of dominance over my so-called Golden Age. Whenever I’m bummed after my Arizona Wildcats lose to another underdog in the NCAA Tournament, I can always fall back on knowing I at least had a team that won championships, one of which I was fortunate enough to attend – Florida beating Ohio State in the 2006 Fiesta Bowl.

After college, which aligned with Urban Meyer moving on from Florida, the sport wasn’t the same for me. But it wasn’t worth abandoning. A major offset is going to live games across the nation, which I began doing after college, once I started earning my own money.

Very diverse preferences among us.  That's interesting.

This isn't politics, it's actual football.