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I blame Michigan

I'm not sure why there's resentment towards BYU or even blame on Michigan.  It was the old poll system and as this thread indicates, nobody gave voters a very good reason to ignore BYU. 

Here are the Independents that finished ranked and a couple others that had notable wins:

• 10-2 Boston College, #5
• 10-2 South Carolina, #11
• 7-3-2 Florida State, #17
• 8-5 Miami, FL, #18
• 7-5 Notre Dame
• 6-5 Syracuse

More good but not great. 

Boston College's record is gaudy but they lost to WVU and Penn State both of whom finished unranked and their only win over a team that did finish ranked was a squeaker over #18 Miami. 

South Carolina's only win over a team that finished ranked was a 12 point home win over #17 FSU and, as mentioned upthread I think by @OrangeAfroMan  they got drilled by a sub.500 Navy team and lost their bowl to OkSU. 

Florida State played a schedule that nobody could complain about but they lost to most of the good teams on it.  They did have a 35 point win over Miami in the Orange Bowl (stadium not game) but they tied Memphis?, tied UGA in the Citrus Bowl, and lost to Auburn (by 1 at home), USCe (by 12 on the road) and Florida (by 10 at home). 

Miami started off great with an upset of preseason #1 Auburn in the Kick-off Classic and giving Florida what would be their only loss (by 12 in Tampa) but then in their next three games they lost by 8 in Ann Arbor, won by 11 in West Lafayette, and got obliterated at home by FSU.  After that they won five straight but the only decent team in that stretch was Notre Dame and when they started playing better teams again they lost their last three to UMD (at home by 2), BC (at home by 2), and UCLA (Fiesta Bowl by 2). 

Notre Dame had notable wins over SEC quasi-Champion LSU and PAC Champion USC but they also lost to Purdue, lost badly to Miami, lost by two scores to Air Force, and lost the Aloha Bowl to SMU. 

Syracuse had HUGE wins and BAD losses.  They beat ACC Champ Maryland and Big8 co-Champ Nebraska but they got shutout at home by Rutgers, got shutout in the Swamp, lost to WVU, lost to PSU, and lost to BC. 

West Virginia was actually pretty solid in 1984.  After knocking off BC and Penn St in back to back weeks WVU was 7-1 and ranked in the top 10.  Only loss was a 20-17 game to a good Maryland team.  But they steadily had starters dropping like flies as the season progressed and by the end it caught up to them.  Lost to UVA, Rutgers, and Temple to end the season 7-4.  Got healthy in the month leading up to the Bluebonnet Bowl and thumped a good TCU team 31-14. Finished #20 in the Coaches Poll.

Nehlen has said that was probably the worst luck with injuries he ever had in a single season.  Helped turn a potentially great season into merely a good one.

The old poll system, to me, was "fun".  Accurate?  Usually not aligned with my opinion.  But it added a fun element to discussions and interest.  I recall getting the Tuesday paper (?) and looking to see if my team jumped in the polls, or dropped out.  Being 12th was better than 16th.  Top Ten was "a thing".

Your team would have a huge win, even on TV(!!!!), and a few days later it would jump from maybe 6th to 2nd.  Or not.  And folks would go on Facebook and argue.

Well, take two hypotheticals, Team A goes 0-2 out of the gate, and finished 12-2, Team B goes 12-0 and finishes 12-2.  Similar schedules and opponents.

Team B is probably ranked #1 at 12-0, drops to maybe 5 after loss one and drops to maybe 7 after loss 2.  

Team a is ranked say 10 preseason and drops out, but climbs back in and is ranked say 9th at 10-2.  Yeah, they end up higher.

I still viewed it as fun, given no system is "perfect" (e.g., aligned with what I could think).