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[QUOTE="BlazeOrange, post: 869938, member: 683"]
16 teams, but start the playoffs during Conference Championship week.  Qualifiers are:
Division winners of the Power 5 play each other in their traditional conference championship games, either at a home field or site chosen by the conference (currently 8 teams, could go to 10 if the B12 ever adds teams)
Eight at-larges play at home site of higher seeded team (would drop to 6 teams if the B12 holds a championship game)
 
The selection committee then re-seeds the winners of those games to make brackets starting at the quarterfinals.
 
Formally incorporating the conference championships into the playoff structure will allow the stronger conferences to technically have more teams in the playoffs without having to add a championship game loser later on.  Will also allow strong 2nd place teams (e.g., Alabama/Auburn loser) to get an at-large, and keep a couple spots open for independents &/or mid-major conference champions (they'll need to hold their championship games a week earlier or cancel them altogether).
 
Going by BCS rankings at the end of the regular season, this year's playoffs would've been:
Conference Championship Game Qualifiers:
Mich. St. vs. Ohio St.
FSU vs. Duke
Missou vs. Auburn
Stanford vs. Arizona St.
 
At-Large Qualifiers:
LSU @ Alabama
Northern Illinois* @ Ok St.
Clemson @ South Carolina
Oregon @ Baylor
 
* NIU later lost the MAC championship, which, if held, would've been earlier under this scenario.  So one of the next four teams left out (UCF, Oklahoma, UCLA, Louisville) would likely get this spot.
 
Using winners of actual games between these teams (either the championship games or earlier in the season), and the final BCS rankings, the quarterfinal brackets would be:
 
Ok St. @ FSU
Stanford @ Mich St.
 
South Carolina @ Auburn
Baylor @ Alabama
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