2 conferences of 17 teams, top 7 in each conference makes the playoffs, no divisions.
You play 17 games: every team in your conference once (16 games), plus 1 crossover game= 17 games.
Benefits:
1. No 7-9 or 8-8 team gets to the playoffs for "winning" a cupcake division over a team with a better record
2. Almost a totally balanced schedule: everyone in the conference plays the exact same schedule, aside from the crossover game.
3. When the playoffs begin, you'll have the true top 7 teams in each conference.
4. Interconference games would be unique, given that each team would have only 1. However, there could be 1 scheduled each week so there's always an AFC/NFC game on.
It's not too different from now, where you only play 5 interconference games anyway. It was 4 a year ago. It could be 1.
The numbers work perfectly for this.