It's clear when they constructed the 12 team playoff they still wanted conference championships to matter by giving the 4 highest ranked conference champs the first round bye. And to me that's a good thing for the health and history of the sport.

But it's clear with this year, that can lead to an unbalanced bracket and over rewards teams that really don't have any business having a bye.

To me the fix is easy.  Instead of rewarding them with a bye - all they need to do is switch it to saying the 4 highest ranked conference champions can't fall lower than 8th, so they at least get a home game.  This would still keep the conference titles meaningful because a home game is much preferred to a road game.  This year the bracket under this format would be

#8 Arizona State v. #9 Tennessee - winner plays #1 Oregon

#5 Notre Dame v. #12 Clemson - winner plays #4 Penn State

#6 Ohio State v. #11 SMU - winner plays #3 Texas

#7 Boise State v. #10 Indiana - winner plays #2 Georgia

Keeping aside the fact that OSU should be ahead of Penn State (I think it should be #4 ND #5 OSU #6 PSU) this bracket is way better than the current one and Boise State and Arizona State would still be happy to have a home playoff game at least (obviously less than the bye but they don't deserve that)