Yes, I know the committee says they are charged with putting the four "best" teams in the playoff and this isn't pro sports. But if we take a brief look at pro sports, not all conferences and divisions are equal, yet a better team may be left out of the playoffs while an inferior team gets in. Case in point, one year the Seahawks were 7-9 and made NFC playoffs while a 10-6 Giants team stayed home. In the NBA Western Conference, a team that might be 45-37 stays home while a 40-42 Eastern Conference team plays in the postseason.
Each college football conference should be its own bracket, period, as there are more conferences than spots available. An independent would still have a high bar to jump as it would have to be demonstrably better than at least two of the five conference champions.
I don't care if Alabama won it all last year; they didn't belong in the playoff. Putting two SEC teams in should not happen again.