Make it like March madness. Take all of the guesswork out of it a and incorporate all of the stupid irrelevant bowl games as part of the playoff.
32 teams is one more game than 16 and completely removes any guesswork from the equation.
8 teams still means an SEC-filled playoff. 16 is better but why not add one more game and get the top ~25% of fbs teams included. You can have an autobid for every conference and the runner ups from the P5s would make it in every year.
I think the only way this happens though is through boycotts or the players union. This would be a million times better for the players than the current setup