[stupac2]

Had ASU and Stanford beaten SDSU.  Had ASU beaten Texas Tech. Had Arizona beaten Houston.  Had UCLA beaten Memphis.  Had Southern Cal not been overwhelmed in South Bend.  And had North Carolina and Ole Miss (who Cal beat) not been the worst and one of the worst teams in the ACC and SEC, respectively...

Even a 2-loss Pac-12 champion could crash the playoff.  As it is, a 1-loss Pac-12 team doesn't look worthy because neither of those teams (UW and WSU) played a Power 5 team with a pulse OOC.  TCU didn't either, but Arkansas isn't Rutgers.

It doesn't matter. The committee has had opportunities to show that tough OOC matters and has turned them down. A one-loss conference champion is going to get in unless all 5 champions have at most one loss.

[stupac2]

Had ASU and Stanford beaten SDSU.  Had ASU beaten Texas Tech. Had Arizona beaten Houston.  Had UCLA beaten Memphis.  Had Southern Cal not been overwhelmed in South Bend.  And had North Carolina and Ole Miss (who Cal beat) not been the worst and one of the worst teams in the ACC and SEC, respectively...

Even a 2-loss Pac-12 champion could crash the playoff.  As it is, a 1-loss Pac-12 team doesn't look worthy because neither of those teams (UW and WSU) played a Power 5 team with a pulse OOC.  TCU didn't either, but Arkansas isn't Rutgers.

It doesn't matter. The committee has had opportunities to show that tough OOC matters and has turned them down. A one-loss conference champion is going to get in unless all 5 champions have at most one loss.