My rule would be to play at least ten games against P4 level opponents. Done.
If you don't, you get a negative mark in any final polling. And I also think the committee is better than the AP. They basically are the same thing except the committee is much smaller of course and the folks sit down and communicate their feelings about it. The AP of course is 50+ "writers", some of whom probably don't much care, sending in votes with no discussion (that we know about).
Nothing will be near what many of us would like in terms of a ranking.
I once read the Coaches get some grad assistant to make the rankings, and send it in, perhaps after a cursory view. Why would a coach spend much time on who is #22?