BYU is #13, Cincy is #16 and Houston is #22. Other candidate rankings are Boise #1, UCF #49, USF #73, UCONN #85, CSU #94, Memphis #107.
This tells the story well why some candidates are real and others are not. The issue is finding a real #14 team if they expand by 4. From a pure football perspective it's a shame Boise doesn't have a chance.
https://www.teamrankings.com/ncf/trends/win_trends/?range=yearly_since_2006