I think the committee is similar to how the basketball tournament is done. They look at rankings, RPI, how you finished the season, SOS...and it generally and roughly mirrors these rankings. But you'll see some differences because some folks won't get as high a ranking and vice versa.
For example, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi State, and Louisville are all ahead of us in RPI, but all have pretty horrible out of conference SOS. Mississippi State's is #205 for example.
In conference play, these 4 teams are 15-6, 13-8, 13-8, and 15-6. We are 15-9. Not much difference. Overall, they have 11 losses, 12, 9, and 9. We have 14. There is a gap on that line. But that's where SOS comes in. Arkansas only played 5 games in the bottom quartile. We played 7. Georgia played 15, Mississippi Stated played 12, and Louisville played 13. That's the difference in records right there. If we would have played 5 more horrible teams in the bottom quartile, we'd be 35-9.
So I suspect if the season ended today, we'd be picked higher than a couple of those teams and lower than a couple. And Tennessee is right ahead of us in RPI. They started out 15-0 but have gone 16-14 since then. I bet we would jump them.