In 2016, there were no other one loss teams. So Ohio State made it in. In 2017, the only other one loss team was Wisconsin.....and they weren't a conference champion. They lost to Ohio State in the Championship. And their best two wins were over #19 Iowa & #25 Michigan....both at home. Alabama had #18 LSU, @#19 Miss State, and a win over #3 FSU to open the season.
This year we are going to see at least one undefeated team....probably (Clemson). LSU has a good shot as well. Georgia could beat the in the championship game which would put them in. The winner of the Big Ten championship will unlikely to have more than one loss. Same goes for the PAC-12 and possibly the BIG-12.
I'd say that there's a decent shot that even a 13-1 conference champion will be left out. That wouldn't even take into account what would occur if LSU had their one loss in the SEC championship. Possibly two one loss conference champions left out? All I'm saying is that.....with Alabama's resume at year end.....they are going to need to hope that things go downhill for quite a few teams. Because it's not 2016 or 2017.
# of losses not being the ONLY criteria, as discussed here, I think Penn St. had an argument in 2016. I'm not saying I fully supported them, but I'm saying they had a case. And I'm also saying the CFPC basically "helmeted" them. They talked a lot about how they valued conference championships, and I get PSU had more losses, but they spent a LOT of time talking about Ohio State's "best loss." When they got done bloviating, it all just sounded like "Ohio State has a shinier helmet than PSU."
Lest I piss off the 2,463 Buckeye fans here, let me be clear about this: I'm not saying OSU definitely shouldn't have been in. I'm saying that the case the CFPC made for them ignored their actual selling points while the committee and pundits harped on "best loss" and ignored their previous assertions about how important conference championships were to them.
In this year, I'm looking mainly at Oregon, Utah, and Oklahoma, and that's because I freely admit I don't expect Minnesota or Baylor to go undefeated, and with a loss those two are out. Palatable or not, that's how it is. Oklahoma....I'm not even sure they're done losing. And if they do win their remaining games, watch and see if losing to KSU and nearly whiffing against Iowa St. isn't used against them when comparing them to Alabama. "Yeah but Alabama lost to #1/#2 LSU and OU lost to lowly KSU and nearly lost to ISU." That crap has already started in the media. I'm not projecting, this is a real thing, right now.
Utah is in trouble simply by virtue of the fact they are Utah instead of some big helmet name. If they win out I don't trust the committee at all to give them a fair shake after a loss to an okay SC team. Oregon has a bigger name and stands a better shot if they win out, but that loss to Auburn is going to be an easy out for the CFPC committee to use transitively to say two things, 1) that Alabama will have beaten that same AU team Oregon lost to, and 2) losing to undefeated LSU is better than losing to what would then be a 3 or 4 loss Auburn team.
I'm not arguing that any of this is right. I am saying I don't think Alabama being out of it even if these other teams keep winning is as clear cut as you seem to think. I wouldn't like it if they got in, but I don't get a vote.