New Orleans, LA –  Alabama completely and utterly destroyed 0, at the Superdome on Monday for the BCS National Championship.

The Crimson Tide will add a 14th title to their mantle, and many years from now, few will remember what happened in Tuscaloosa two months earlier, when LSU went into Bryant-Denny Stadium and pulled out a 9-6 victory in overtime.

It was one of eight wins against ranked opponents in the Tigers' unprecedented 13-0 regular season, which included victories over Pac-12 champion Oregon, Big East co-champ West Virginia and Georgia in the SEC title game.

Unfortunately, none of that matters now.

Alabama was awarded a mulligan because it plays in the unanimously perceived best conference in the land. To the Tide's credit, they took that second chance and ran away with it, crushing the Tigers badly enough to erase any memory of that loss in November.

But there has to be a solution to this never-ending saga of determining a national champion. Pitting teams from the same conference in the title game is redundant -- there's a reason sequels aren't as successful as the original.

For years, a playoff system was pushed aside because it would diminish college football's sacred regular season and the tradition of bowl games.

But with the system currently in place, Alabama and LSU played to a season split. So what was accomplished?

The situation recalls countless national championship debates, such as Notre Dame finishing No. 2 to Florida State in 1993 despite both teams finishing with one loss and the Fighting Irish defeating the Seminoles in the regular season.

The next year, Nebraska and Penn State both completed undefeated campaigns, but the Cornhuskers topped the polls by a wide margin.

While such instances have been scarce since its inception, the BCS system is still flawed, and there's a way it can be fixed while still upholding the integrity of the regular season and bowl games traditions.

Once the inevitable conference realignment settles and four super-conferences are established, the format of a proposed eight-team playoff system would be as follows:

- Each of the four major conferences (SEC, Pac-12, Big Ten and ACC) must have a championship game. If the Big 12 had a title game this season, Oklahoma State could have added another quality win to its resume and leapt Alabama in the final BCS standings. The four conference champions advance to the playoff.

- Four teams from the mid-major conferences and the independents are also selected to the playoff. In trying to maintain the media and coaches' egos, the two can combine to select the participants, but only conference champions can be chosen.

- The games will commence one week after the completion of the fall semester, which would shorten the layoff between games and protect the "student athletes."

- The first round will continue the bowl tie-ins. The Rose Bowl will host the Big Ten and Pac-12 champions; the Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl can alternate hosting the SEC and ACC winners, and the Fiesta Bowl can host the two mid- major conference contests.

- The "Final Four" can pit the mid-major first-round winners against the Rose Bowl and Sugar/Orange Bowl champions. Who wouldn't watch two David vs. Goliath matchups?

- The winners play in National Championship Game.

The venue for the final three games have yet to be determined, though I'm sure Jerry Jones can find a way to fit a cash cow into Cowboys Stadium's schedule.

Details of the proposed format is skeptical at best, but its foundation as a true season-long playoff is more appealing than the current method in place.

Alabama would probably disagree with that theory, considering it certainly played like a national champion on Monday night.

If only they deserved to be there.