then the champion will receive the NCAA championship trophy that DI-FCS, DII, and DIII champions receive. Right now technically the DI-FCS champion is the NCAA's DI champion for football. Hence why the FBS champion during the BCA, BCS, and now Playoff eras receive a different trophy.

Something else to consider is that a NCAA committee (I think either the Bowl Committee or Competition Committee) approves the certification that is required for bowl games to be played. It might even be a subcommittee that approves the certification. If there are fewer teams and the bowls don't change anything, then it may be difficult for the committee to suddenly revoke the certification for some of these bowl games. In the history of the bowl games, I believe there have only been a couple times when a bowl game has lost its certification when applying to renew it. In most cases a bowl game lost its certification because it decided to cease to exist and didn't bother to apply to renew it.
[Post edited by VTHokie2000 at 01/04/2017 1:37PM]