You guys think we'll ever have an NIT tournament for college football? I hope so. I'd like to see the bowls completely go away.
What's the problem with bowls? They're a great reward for the players and they get better viewership than regular season games, so the fans, despite many protestations, are clearly watching. They aren't harming a soul. I think bowl games, with expanded playoffs are one of the things the sport gets right.
To answer your question, NO. The bowls aren't going away in lieu of a lower tier tournament. ESPN owns all the bowls and there's no incentive for them to stop playing them. They have a cheap way to add a ton of ad revenue. As for the schools, you think you have opt outs now? You think adding two, three, four games for teams without the incentive being a national championship is going to work? In addition to that you're asking players to give up their winter break to go play meaningless games in Albuquerque, Starkville, Ames, etc? For who, for what? You'd have freshmen opting out.