I certainly get the point regarding how the polls in college football are set up and are completely arbitrary. A simple, purely mathematical point system such as the one dreamed up by
Brian McAtee just as a hobby but which works astonishingly well would do much to eliminate the human-error factor inherent in a poll system based entirely upon the opinions of a given group of "experts" who might be bringing their own prejudices to the table any given week. I'm also not thrilled with the bowls now being corporatised entities: the most ridiculous of which in recent history was the late and unlamented "IBM/OS-2 Warp Bowl" and the "Meineke Car Care Bowl".
I have to say I'm still one of those who's not sold on the idea of a playoff system. The Bowls offer a championship to multiple schools even if it's merely a conference crown and a consolation trophy to a number of other schools who did have at least a winning season but didn't quite get to the summit —at least they get some payoff for the effort. The constellation of bowl games fuels incentive for a football programme to get to that next level next year. It also fuels rivalries and intensifies the competition: in a year in which two or three teams can stake a logical claim to have been the "real" national champion, you know those schools are going to go hard against one another in the next season to win that championship beyond doubt. Happened to Notre Dame when they got screwed out by Miami (who went undefeated in games but also didn't face quite as heavy a schedule as the Irish did, who suffered only one loss that year) in the polls in 1987; they roared right back the next year and won that championship outright.
The BCS is a trainwreck of a system and I knew it was going to be the moment it was proposed. What needed fixing wasn't the bowl system but the polling mechanisms. Take it entirely out of the hands of coaches and sportswriters who all have their biases no matter how much they deny it to themselves and everybody else and make it a matter of simple mathematics, and let the maths as well as the efforts of the teams decide who can claim a national championship. And if there's a bit of controversy over rival claims, well, a bit of controversy can be a good thing. Especially if it fuels spectacular football the next season.