champs actually deserve to be in as many don’t have good teams. I don’t need a computer or committee to know that an 8-5 MAC team doesn’t deserve a shot. Period. Now if that MAC team rows their boat to a 11-2 or 10-3 record then maybe there’s room for conversation.
Winning a conference only matters for comparison if the conferences are at least somewhat comparable.
Break off needs to happen and some kind of scheduling arrangement among those that split off is actually what would be fair. Then go ahead and slot in conference champs.