But the subjective judgements appear political/economic

They don’t appear to be based on the play of the teams on the field or the results. That’s what bothers me.

Subjectively - ND is not better than 4 teams from the SEC alone. I don’t want to be a sacrificial lamb to a team we can’t hang with. But All the B1G teams are overrated under these rankings. And the BS they put out now will be used to justify the BS they use at the end of the year. Which will end up with shitty semifinal games.

Most of us that want fewer playoff teams believe that expansion makes the regular season less enjoyable and meaningful. If a team’s earned or unearned prestige biases the playoff rankings the regular season games are no longer meaningful. When they go to 12 how much value will OSU and Bama place on regular season games knowing that they’re allowed to lose 2 or 3 and still get in on recruiting rankings and past success?