That's the thing that I don't get. They do settle it on the field. During the regular season. That one of the things that makes college football so much better than the NFL. Every game counts. The debate between one or two teams getting in that last spot is not worth changing what's made college ball great.
If that were true than there is no way tOSU jumps TCU for the 4th spot. In what world other than the delusional SEleCtion Committee's is a 2 TD loss to VPI seen as less troublesome than a FG loss to Baylor who was #6 when TCU got jumped?
The closest we come to having an on-the-field determination between TCU and tOSU is their common opponent in Minnesota:
TCU(h) 30 Minn 7
tOSU 31 Minn(h) 24
Looks like TCU's D was much better than tOSU's and the O's were nearly equal. Unless you are going to give 17 points to Minn for TCU's home field advantage, on paper the choice should be TCU. It should also be noted that if the home field advantage is that much of a factor, then tOSU's loss to VPI at home should have been "worse" and TCU's loss to Baylor at Baylor should be mitigated.
If the end result justify the means (tOSU beating Alabama and Oregon) why wouldn't TCU have been able to do the same? TCU crushed Ole Miss, who beat Alabama. Anything is possible.
Of course, the Committee could have "kept it real": They could have simply announced that the teams with the most wins would be "in" or that only conference champions would be "in". But they didn't. What they did was give us a BS story about what their process was so in the end they could maximize ESPN's television audience.
In my OP, I pointed out how the league commissioners don't want to change anything as they deemed the changes to the BCS formula's as something that delegitimized the BCS process. IMO, this first year of the CFP is a clear cut failure; returning us to the days when reputation and style points counted more than the games. A change is required to legitimize the process outside of the room where the commissioners met.
@SouthernJacket you may be satisfied with the 2014 final four, obviously I was not. To be clear, there was no way I ever thought that GT should have been in the conversation without being undefeated or a one loss ACC Champion. So my opinion has nothing to do with gold colored glasses. Oregon and Alabama should never have been ranked ahead of F$U and TCU (or Baylor) should have been "in" over tOSU.
The games now
count less - certainly less than the opinions of the Committee members.