This is exactly why no team that couldn’t win its own conference should be in the playoff. There is simply no way in a four team playoff to balance strength of schedule over the regular season. This year, for example, the Big Ten was arguably the strongest conference. The bowl results certainly suggest that. Yes, Alabama and Georgia are both good teams, but they played through what was, this year, a lesser league, and their regular season records and lofty poll rankings reflect that. What is needed is an eight team playoff, with NO conference also-rans. Champions only.
Let all the conference’s abide by the same rules as well. The Big Ten and Big 12 and Pac 12 all play 9 conference games. The SEC only plays 8, and then they schedule cupcake teams like FCS Mercer (Alabama) which even in a lower division was only 5-6 this year.
One thing I would demand is that if a team from the power 5 conference plays a lower division school then they are disqualified from CFP consideration.
‘This year, for example, the Big Ten was arguably the strongest conference. The bowl results certainly suggest that.’
the bowl record suggests that because it had no playoff team, the BIG benefited with some highly favorable match-ups...Kentucky, Boston College, Arizona, a badly fading Miami...last year, the same BIG with less favorable games went 3-7; conferences don’t change overall strength in the space of one year...