re: How is this CFP any better than the BCS??

To answer your question directly, this committee probably knows their shite way better than the Coaches' and Harris polls did, and they are also individually subject to much more scrutiny.

That said, the BCS placed significant weight on unbiased, comprehensive math. Be-all, end-all? No, but nothing anyone says will convince me that democracy is a better way to decide these things than is a mathematical formula or series thereof.