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While there’s little disputing the fact that the best team in college football was crowned National Champions on Monday night when the Alabama Crimson Tide dominated the top-ranked LSU Tigers 21-0, it was still one of the more ridiculous BCS scenarios that we’ve seen. That’s because for all their talent, Alabama didn’t even earn the right to play in their own conference championship game. And so the solution that college football fans — including President Barack Obama — have been begging for has finally appeared on the horizon: a national playoff tournament.

An anonymous BCS official told The Sporting News on Monday that a new playoff will get done this offseason, and could be in place as soon as next year. The key, according to the official, is getting a system in place that preserves the importance of the regular season while still giving multiple teams a shot to advance to the title game.

The key issue is how to install a system that preserves the importance of the regular season, something that the NCAA believes is what makes college football so unique in that a single loss during the season can sink a team’s title hopes. However, that idea took a major hit this season when ‘Bama didn’t even qualify for the SEC championship game by virtue of their November loss to LSU, yet still got a spot in the national championship. Meanwhile, other one-loss teams like Oklahoma State and Stanford were left out due simply to their lower ranks in the national polls.

That one-loss-and-you-could-be-done system is also the reason why mid-major teams like Boise State, who arguably could hang with the major conference powerhouses, can never get a shot to do so, because teams load up their non-conference schedules with games that they know they can win, and losing to a mid-major is a surefire way to sink your national title hopes.

As of now, what form the playoff will take is still yet to be determined. The most common idea is Plus-One [Game] system, or a four-team playoff, which would pit the No. 1 and No. 4 teams against each other (this year that would have been LSU and Stanford) while the Nos. 2 and 3 teams square off (‘Bama and OSU) and the winners facing each other in the championship. Such a scenario would have likely resulted in LSU and Alabama in the title game again, but at least the other two schools would have gotten a fair shot.

Another (albeit remote) possibility is a larger, month-long 16-team tournament. Implementing that would allow the smaller schools like Boise State to get a ticket to the dance as well while still having all of the usual powerhouses involved. However, due to the academic calendars (remember they’re all “student-athletes”) and the loss of the traditional bowl games, such a tournament is likely a pipe dream at this point.

Regardless of what they choose, as long as there’s a playoff, it will be an improvement.

— Craig Lowell