One nagging little thought on Gee's comments. He mentions simply going back to the old bowl system. If the non-aq's push too hard, and start throwing around lawsuits what's to prevent the aq conferences from scrapping the bcs and going back to the way things were twenty years ago? Sure, the rest of college football could have their playoff, but do you really think anybody, any television networks, any corporate sponsors are going to be there if all the big boys are out and playing in the bowls?
Another alternative is they could raid what they want from the Big East, then pull out of and form their own alternative to the NCAA setting up their own playoff. As they're no longer part of the NCAA, there would be no collusion in keeping other schools out. The NCAA is a voluntary organization. Little schools would have no more right to demand membership in the aq schools alternative than they do to demand membership in the Big Ten or SEC. They'd just simply say other schools can form their own playoff system and let the market decide where to allocate customers and dollars.
Just a random thought from what you said. If these BCS schools were to hypothetically form their own playoff/organization, then what's to stop the non-aq schools from refusing to play those teams? It's been made apparent that the majority of the BCS schools don't want to play any good schools out of conference, because as Gee says, they play a "murderer's row" in conference. If the "big boys" don't want to let the "little guys" play in a playoff system, then the "little guys" could just tell them to screw off. It would basically force the BCS teams to play 12 regular season games a year against BCS competition, unless they decide to fill OOC games with FBS teams.
The obvious downfall for something like that is the loss of "money games" that the smaller schools depend on to fund their athletic budgets. However, I feel that's one of the only ways the smaller schools could really stand up to the big schools.
That's the thing though. Most of these big schools don't realize that they actually need the little guy. Every Goliath needs a David. It's good for the sport. Everyone likes to throw this out, but the obvious example is the NCAA Tournament. Can you deny the greatness of that event? If you just removed all the non-BCS schools it would lose much of its luster. Sure they don't actually win the tournament very often, but just the possibility that anything can happen makes it that much more fun to watch.
Also, I'd be interested to know if Gee was a proponent of the BCS system when it was created. He probably loved it because he saw it as a way for the big schools to ensure that they'd get more money and more TV exposure. Now that he sees the little guy has a shot to get a piece of the cake, and maybe even the whole thing (win a NC), he wants to take his cake and run with it.