What I really think should be done is get rid of all the conferences. Create 4 new conferences North,South,East and West consisting of 10 teams in each lets just say the top 40 schools year in and year out. Eliminate all cupcake games so every team can play each other within division. At the end of the season the 4 teams with the best record face off for the Championship in the fiesta and orange bowl with the championship in the rose bowl. the sugar can be rotated with the fiesta and orange.
The remaining 36 teams can face off in all the other meaningless bowls. Drop the 60 or so division 1 teams to DivisionII because in reality 90% of them are never really in contention for anything.
I think you would lose a lot of the rivalry if you created such super conferences. I voted for the 16 team format. I would like to add one other qualification. To be eligible for the playoffs, each team's out of conference games would have to be against Div 1 clubs, no D II cupcakes like Western Carolina, etc.