Go to a 8 team playoff. Have the power 5 champions get a bid, then let the committee decide on the 3 at-large and decide on the seeds.
Then setup a NIT style bracket for all the rest. Let the 5 power 5 losers get into the second round with a bye, and makeup the rest of the brackets with the remaining top teams.
Have a bracket of 6 teams to play around the same time as the conference championship that allows them to play into the NIT bracket. Then the 3 winners of that, and the 5 Power 5 losers makeup an elite 8 bracket and play into their own Championship. Every group plays the same amount of games, but you increase the post season by 1 game. So take out 1 regular season OOC game, or just extend the post season.
This keeps the Conference championships games, leaves the New Years 6 for the top tier bracket, along with a national championship, and leaves 10 bowl games for the tier 2 championship.
16 bowls, includes 19 top 25 teams a chance to play for something meaningful.
Of course this would mean the Big12 would either need to play a championship game, or pull the seeds back to a power 4 and let them fight for an at-large CFP seed. That would open up another committee decision spot, and give a field of 8 and another bowl game for the first bracket of “NIT” tourney.
Might be a crazy idea, but if it works for basketball maybe it could work for football.