Committee concluded, rightly or wrongly, it was unequivocally one of the 4 best teams in the nation, which gave it the discretion to include Alabama in the Playoff over the conference champions of the Big10 and PAC12 (among others). Without that fail-safe discretion the Championship could be compromised by an early-season upset of what clearly is the best team in the nation. You can't have such discretion for a conference non-champion and not for an independent. Also, nanny nanny boo boo.