My opinion is that balance of power between conference divisions is over rated and not important
what's the worst that happens if Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan St, and Penn St. are all VERY good, the West is very weak with the Badgers being the best of the bunch and go 5-4 in conference and win the division?
Are we concerned that a huge upset could happen in the CCG? So what?
Is it that we don't want all the top teams in one division because they beat themselves up and all end with 2 losses and potentially miss the 4-team playoff?
IMHO, competitive balance is preferred but not necessarily the end-all-be-all. There are a few problems with unbalanced divisions:
First, in the scenario you laid out where a mediocre Wisconsin wins the West at 5-4 while two out of three or three out of four elite teams from the East miss the CG the potential problem is that a CG upset likely results in no CFP representation. If we instead had two elite teams in the CG then we would be almost guaranteed to get one of them into the CFP.
Second, with the current setup the B1G-E teams that aren't as good have almost zero chance of ever winning the division. The Buckeyes, Wolverines, Nittany Lions, and Spartans each will have their off years but the chances of all of them having an off year in the same year are near zero which leaves Indiana, Maryland, and Rutgers in a tough spot.
One problem, of course, is that things change. Most of us can remember when the B12-N was dominating the B12 with high-end Nebraska and KSU teams while OU and UT were down. We can also remember when the SEC-E was dominating the SEC with high-end UF and UT teams while Bama and LSU were down.
I actually am intrigued by the B12's idea of eliminating divisions and just having the top two teams play. I think that is probably the best way to improve a league's chances of putting a team in the CFP because it guarantees that one of the top teams in the league will get a quality win on the last day.
One interesting thing is that there haven't really been any major CG upsets in the CFP era:
2018:
- #11 UW over #17 Utah
- #1 Bama over #4 UGA
- #2 Clemson over nr Pitt
- #5 OU over #14 UT
- #6 tOSU over #21 NU
2017:
- #10 USC over #12 Stanford
- #1 Clemson over #7 Miami
- #6 UGA over #2 Auburn (a sort-of upset but not a big one)
- #3 OU over #11 TCU
- #8 tOSU over #4 UW (another sort-of upset but again not a big one and I'm pretty sure tOSU was technically favored)
2016:
- #4 UW over #8 Colorado
- #1 Bama over #15 UF
- #3 Clemson over #23 VaTech
- #7 PSU over #6 UW (another sort-of upset)
2015:
- #1 Clemson over #10 UNC
- #2 Bama over #18 UF
- #5 MSU over #4 Iowa (another sort-of upset)
- #7 Stanford over #20 USC
2014:
- #2 Oregon over #7 Arizona
- #1 Bama over #16 Mizzou
- #4 FSU over #11 GaTech
- #5 tOSU over #13 UW (technically this was an upset)