Starting in 2014, NCAA football will finally have a playoff system for the first time in its history. This is way overdue. College basketball, baseball, soccer, hockey, lacrosse and tennis all choose their champion using a playoff system. All of the professional sports leagues of major team sports decide their champion using a playoff system. At the high school level, state champions are determined using a playoff system. Everybody has been using a playoff system to determine league champions except the highest level of college football in the country. 
How the FBS determines its national title has been a problem since the early 1900s. Up until 1991, the national champion in college football was decided by the AP and coaches polls. 
The main problem with this is there could be two different national champions in one year because a different team could be ranked No. 1 in each of the polls. This very thing happened on numerous occasions throughout the history of college football. In 1992, the NCAA created the Bowl Coalition, which would, in theory, make the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams in the poll play against each other. This system, however, was flawed as well because the champions of the Pac-10 and Big 10 conferences were contractually obligated to play in the Rose Bowl. If a champion of one of those conferences was ranked No. 1, the team still could not participate in the title game. 
In 1995, the NCAA introduced the Bowl Alliance system, which would only last three years due to some of the same flaws and problems of previous systems. Finally, in 1998, the Bowl Championship Series was created to determine a champion.
As bad as the BCS system seems, it was a huge step up from the previous ways college football decided its champion. This playoff system is not perfect, and it could be better, but after years and years of having a title winner decided for us, four teams will compete in a single-elimination tournament. Some major differences with this system to the BCS are the participants will not be determined by computer rankings or a poll but instead by a committee of up to 20 people. Although more than four teams should be allowed to compete for the championship, this new playoffs system is a small step in the right direction. Finally, college football has given up its arbitrary ways and joined the rest of the sporting world.