I'm certainly not a proponent of the Electoral College, but I do prefer it to a popular vote.
My biggest concern with a popular vote is that campaigns would spent their energy predominantly on urban areas. I'm probably one of the few on here who can state that I've lived in rural areas my entire life, and I hate that we would likely be ignored. Even medium-sized cities that might usually see some attention, such as Charlotte, North Carolina, won't have any attention.
My compromise is transferring every state to a Nebraska/Maine-type system.
I think this would only be truly successful with neutrally drawn congressional districts. If one party controls a majority of states during redistricting there will always be accusations of bias in the EC for the decade.