I don't think there's some massive conspiracy going on. But I think it's safe to admit that non-P5 teams already have the deck stacked against them to some extent, whether intentional or not. Can we agree there's a stigma that comes with non-P5 teams? Can we agree there's a stigma or level of "unconvinced" that comes with playing the type of schedule BYU has played? If we can agree on that, then BYU can't afford to have ancillary things play with the committee's minds when sorting out the rankings.

The UW fiasco might not drop BYU 4-5 spots, but it very well could drop us a spot, which is painful to think about. 1 spot is too many. All it takes is for the bulk of the committee to have heard enough of the story from national media to falsely believe BYU had a chance to play a P5 team and ducked the game in order to wait out the CFP rankings first.

You have to remember that these are humans that make up the committee. As much as they use data and science and facts, they can't completely remove the emotions or biases of the decision. At one point, the emotions played to our favor. We were the only team out West brave enough to play. The committee knows we had our lineup of P5 games ripped out from under us. Those things play on the emotions of the committee. But if they believe we ducked an opportunity to play UW without knowing all the facts, why wouldn't that have the potential to hurt BYU?