But I think the National Championship should go to the most-deserving team based on the results on the field. If Bama wanted in they should have won their conference or played a tougher schedule (prior to the bowl games their Sagarin SOS was in the 50s). And I realize they thought FSU would be tough, but FSU won 5 games that counted (their FCS opponent didn't have enough scholarship players to count, making FSU technically bowl-ineligible). I don't think a conference championship should be required, but the circumstances where it should be overlooked are rare. I can think of an example from this year, however. Let's say TCU had lost all three of it's OOC games but somehow went 8-1 in the Big 12, including beating Oklahoma. And let's say that was Oklahoma's only loss, but they still beat OSU (The Big 10 champ). In that scenario, I'd be okay with Oklahoma getting in over OSU, because the results on the field would mandate it, not some garbage "eye test". Or another hypothetical, if FSU's only loss was to Bama, and they won the ACC, I would expect Bama to get in over FSU, despite not being their conference champ, because they beat FSU on the field. The results on the field should matter.

Basically what I'm saying is that the "eye test" is just the confirmation bias test. You decide who you think is the best, then you find evidence to support that assumption. It's meaningless to me, and I refuse to support it.

On a related note, but slightly off topic, I think that the CFP and the AP and Coaches' polls should include a requirement that you cannot vote a team with the same or better record below a team that they beat. So if Team A beats Team B in week 1, you cannot rank Team B (0-1) ahead of Team A (1-0). If in week 3 Team A has lost 2 in a row and Team B has won 2 in a row, then go ahead and rank Team B (2-1) ahead of Team A (1-2), but not before that. This avoids garbage like the FSU/Miami debacle of the 2000 Orange Bowl (and I realize that was the fault of the computers, but it's the same point, no computer or pollster should be allowed to set aside what actually happened on the field).