Basically the committee is a high profile, glorified poll. The primary drivers for decisions are the two existing polls. Where a teams starts the season in the polls matters greatly and there is no way around that. I believe this to be an absolute truth because if there were no starting poll, how would you decide who played the better schedule or beat better teams? With no polls, the committee would have to sift through all of the undefeated teams first and rank them some how which means anybody could be number one. And we all know that there is no way on November 8th that the committee will rank undefeated non power schools over the power 5. So there has to be a reference or start and the initial poll is that point. I recall last year when other factors such as technique were introduced into the reasoning during the committee explanations last year and they almost lost all credibility with me. For example, one week, the chairman and others were attempting to explain how committee member viewed the technique of offensive linemen and how the lineman attacked off the ball as a "metric" in determining who was better and I thought that was pure comedy. So the committee could only go back to the same basics that everyone else falls back on and that begins and ends with the poll voters; such is the pain and beauty of the college football system of merit. The BCS computers presented an objective point of view from the metrics and of the on-field results. Although, some computer polls weighted some metrics more heavily than others,without this relatively unbiased element, the playoff committee is not an improvement or advancement of the FBS national championship selection process. The committee is just a high profile poll designed more to create the optimal outcome for big time college football and not the fans.