A common place of blame for the Big 12's absence in the inaugural College Football Playoff field was its lack of a championship game -- the only major conference without one. TCU head coach Gary Patterson has a solution. Let's get rid of all the conference championship games!

"I think you would probably make more money on the playoff games in December than you would with the conference championship games," Patterson said. "Other than the SEC, there were a lot of empty seats that I saw at those conference championship games. The teams playing on New Year's would have basically the same amount of time to get ready, and you wouldn't take away from everybody's recruiting or interfere with final exams."

Under Patterson's model, the playoff would be expanded to six teams, with the top two seeds receiving byes. Each of the five power conferences would have at least one representative, with an at-large school filling out the field. The games would begin on the first weekend of December, with the semifinals on New Year's Day again and the championship game 10 days later.

TCU happened to finish the season No. 6 in the final College Football Playoff rankings, and would have likely made Patterson's six-team field along with fellow Big 12 team Baylor.