the Sooners would be left out for the sinful home loss to the Cyclones
and they should
Maybe so. But then so should Clemson for its road loss to a much-worse-than-Iowa-State Syracuse team.
I'm not going to pull a Lou Holtz on Iowa State, but that is not a bad team. The Clones have lost by 3 to Iowa, by by 4 at West Virginia, and by 7 to oSu on a last-play pick in the end zone. Their only bad loss is by 10 to Texas. They will probably finish 8-4.
If we want to make allowances for injuries, ISU could be the dictionary illustration. I believe that they were using their pre-season 4th-string QB against Oklahoma State.
Meanwhile, Clemson gets a pass because their QB who has thrown almost as many picks as TDs went down against Syracuse.
To the other point under discussion here, the rankings should reflect how the Committee sees the teams RIGHT NOW, not how they will be after their CCGs, or after they play their hated rivals, or whatnot. It would be misleading if the Committee were to project Clemson (for example) to beat Miami in the ACC CG and rank them accordingly. I don't think that they are doing that. I think that, in this respect, they are doing the right thing.
So I agree with Badge that, if the season were to end today, Wisconsin--rightly or wrongly--would be left out. If Wisconsin wins out, the Badgers will properly be in the top 4. No way a 13-0 P5 conference champ gets left out unless all 5 P5 champs are undefeated.