Nothing changes in the final end of season ranking in the top 4. If the CFPC is interested in sending the top four teams, those teams are Alabama, Western Michigan, Ohio State, and Michigan. Assuming they will overlook Western Michigan, they should add Washington.
Typically in the top 5-10 you have a series of 1 loss teams with not-so-bad losses to either an undefeated team or another 1 loss team who lost to an undefeated team, and as a result, the conference championships tend to sort out these one loss teams before the final ranking is released. This is not the case this year, beyond Alabama and Western Michigan, with all other teams having significant losses. Further, while Western Michigan may have inferior wins to Alabama, Ohio State, or Michigan, they have better wins than Washington, as further evidence of their quality. The chaos of this year, the most significant of any season since the Network Ranking began, highlights the importance of an unbiased, objective, evidence based method of organizing wins and losses to determine who truly earned a playoff berth.
Assuming the CFPC is set on leaving out WMU, they should have Ohio State and Michigan play a rematch from the epic game a couple weeks back on a neutral field and let Washington try their hand at Alabama. You send Penn State to the Rose and Clemson to the Orange because the evidence just isn't there with both teams having lost to Pitt. Furthermore, in Clemson's case, their wins just aren't there either, having the worst quality best win (Florida State) among any of the teams the CFPC is likely to consider for the playoff.
Top 25 (Explanation; Full Ranking):
- Alabama
- Western Michigan
- Ohio State
- Michigan
- Washington
- Wisconsin
- Clemson
- Nebraska
- Penn State
- USC
- Stanford
- Iowa
- Colorado
- Northwestern
- Oklahoma
- West Virginia
- Florida State
- Minnesota
- Tennessee
- Washington State
- Houston
- LSU
- Texas A&M
- Boise State
- Florida