From NBC's Domenico Montanaro and Mark Murray
Now that President-elect Obama has waded into reforming the college football Bowl Championship Series (and one of our teams -- um, Texas -- was jumped unceremoniously in the rankings), we thought we'd offer the country a solution that should be adopted as soon as possible.

Call this a foray into policy. It's just too important to the country.

Like the president-elect, we agree that the basis for reform should begin with an eight-team playoff. Inevitably there will be arguments over who is left out at the back end, but we'd rather have the argument of who's No. 8 or 9 than who's No. 2 or 3. This is, after all, about finding a legitimate national champion.

We also propose a first-round home-field advantage for the higher seed, because the regular season should count for something. Lower seeds should have a chance to win it, but they should have to really earn it.

The semifinal round and championship game would be played on neutral fields. The elite bowls should rotate year to year between who gets these games.

It's a start, and we think common sense should prevail and our recommendations be adopted.