That said are the teams outside the top 3 of the MWC or Pac-12 or Big-12 really better? I'm sure someone will check Pomeroy and tell me they are, but I respond with the same argument that I use why the P5 is evil: it's based in part on self-fulfilling prophecy / circular reasoning. The Pac-12 is good because the Pac-12 is good; so UCLA must be awesome because they're the best of the Pac-12, and they beat Arizona, who must be good because the Pac-12 is good, and they beat everyone in the Pac-12 except UCLA, who must therefore be awesome. ESPN repeats that reasoning because they want to promote TV viewership, and pretty soon you get better recruits going to Pac-12 schools at all levels and it actually becomes true. At least in basketball with the NCAA tourney and its history of cindarellas there's less of a stranglehold than on football, but the football playoff being limited to 4 teams has only reinforced this.