Oh man, the weird cultural and historical quirks that led to interscholastic, nominally amateur "U23" football being a top 5 sports entertainment business in the US could fill volumes!

And basically yes, every single system designed to name a champion is doomed in a sport with (1) no enforced parity (either by salary cap or by relegation), (2) a huge number of teams nominally in the same tier, (3) a 12-game regular season, and (4) vast and barely concealed corruption. Honestly, the stupidity of college football is a non-negligible part of its charm.