I created a new thread to discuss the playoff and "fairness".
My own position is that the two sides, those being the one that wants the "best" teams in the playoffs, and the one that wants the "most deserving" teams in the playoffs, are talking past each other. They're not always the same teams.
Talent-wise and coaching-wise, Bama might be the "best" team in the nation every year. But we wouldn't say that they "deserve" to be in the playoff if they lose 3 close games and don't win their conference. Because they wouldn't deserve it.
So we're arguing over whether a 1-loss team that didn't even play for its conference championship is more deserving than a 2-loss team who won its conference championship. And we're arguing it by trying to claim which team is "better", which is a subjective eye-test metric.
As long as it's a beauty pageant, we shouldn't even discuss fairness, because beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Whether that's the AP, the collection of polls/computers that made up the BCS, or the committee.