I think you could use the BCS bowls with at large bids and get a good result w/8 instead of 16 teams. This year, I would make this the bracket. Rose - Ohio State v. Oregon; Fiesta - TX v. Boise State; Sugar - Alabama v. TCU; Orange-Cincinatti v. Georgia Tech, and re-seed after those bowls.
I could get along with that too, but then there will be years where Conference Champions that are NOT in the picture, and I think that would be just as unfair as the current BCS system.
Sixteen teams allows every Conference Champion and four at-large teams to play.