Collectively, the Buckeyes and Sooners probably lose one CFP berth by playing each other the last two years. So the message sent by the committee is to schedule cupcakes because at the end of the day "# of losses" is a higher ranking criteria than "SoS".
Except that it isn't. Auburn should get credit for scheduling Clemson, as OSU/OU should get credit for scheduling each other.
But Auburn by losing that game *and* losing to LSU isn't punished, while OSU is.
Auburn was #2 in the CFP going into the SECCG. I could maybe understand them getting into the CFP after beating Georgia in a rematch, because that would be 3 really big wins
and being conference champ at 11-2. And it would play into the "improved team" mantra that perhaps since those losses were early the team had become much better by the end of November and were now one of the best 4 in the country. That would tell the world that SoS and conference championships matter, because they'd have both of them but still 2 losses.
But the committee didn't wait until after the CCG. They had them all the way at #2 before the CCG.
So # of losses is a higher ranking criteria than SoS,
except when it isn't. Just as SoS and conference championships "carry a lot of weight",
except when they don't.
This is my ENTIRE point of the OP. This is a terrible system. This changed from being a beauty pageant by the AP to a beauty pageant by the AP/Coaches/computers to being a beauty pageant by the committee. And beauty is non-objective, so they can change their minds and do whatever they want, whenever they want, by whatever rationale they deem necessary on that day.
Just as someone [perhaps you?] mentioned that the week before the CCGs, the committee said "#5-#8 is really close", and then all of a sudden #8 beats #4, #6 beats #2, and #7 loses, while #5 sits at home and watches its "good loss" lose some shine as the team that beat them picks up its third loss. Yet #5 is rewarded for that while #8 which was "really close" gets no reward for beating #4.
It's a terrible system. It's arbitrary and capricious. And any attempt to dress it up to find a "true" champion doesn't change the fact that it's still a completely subjective beauty pageant.