[TriangleTree]

This whole idea of a committee deciding who deserves to play for a championship, without regard to conference championships, is to me outrageous in the context of what sports have always been about.

I agree.
To me the most fundamental issue is not having more than one team from a conference represented in a 4 team playoff.  That's just wrong, unsportmanlike and boring.
I still can't get over the fact that Alabama and LSU were once chosen to play for a national championship.

I could live with a scenario where a conference chooses to send a team other than their "champion" to the playoff. For example, if the Big10 did not feel that PennState or Wisc would make it to the playoffs, they could put forward Ohio State for consideration (i.e. their "championship" criteria for playoff purposes could be who finishes first in the ranking).

[TriangleTree]

This whole idea of a committee deciding who deserves to play for a championship, without regard to conference championships, is to me outrageous in the context of what sports have always been about.

I agree.
To me the most fundamental issue is not having more than one team from a conference represented in a 4 team playoff.  That's just wrong, unsportmanlike and boring.
I still can't get over the fact that Alabama and LSU were once chosen to play for a national championship.

I could live with a scenario where a conference chooses to send a team other than their "champion" to the playoff. For example, if the Big10 did not feel that PennState or Wisc would make it to the playoffs, they could put forward Ohio State for consideration (i.e. their "championship" criteria for playoff purposes could be who finishes first in the ranking).