The decision will not be "fixed" or "outrageous"

Instead of just raging against the playoff selection committee, claiming that the "fix is in" for either Alabama or Ohio State and pretending that one or the other has an obviously superior claim, can we just acknowledge that the committee has a really difficult decision to make between two teams for which a very plausible case could be made either way? Ohio State has the conference championship and better wins; they also have more losses, including one really bad one, and would be an underdog to Alabama on a neutral field. No matter which way they go, the committee has to do something distasteful: either give Ohio State the benefit of the doubt two years in a row, or put in a non-champion two years in a row. As both teams have gotten controversial favorable treatment in the past as non-champions (Alabama in 2011, Ohio State last year), neither one will get a lot of sympathy from fans of other schools.

The bottom line is that the committee has to make a hard choice in a case where there is no clear-cut "right" answer. If the two schools involved were, say, Washington and Syracuse, a lot more people would realize this. But because it's Alabama and Ohio State, the preemptive outrage meters are dialed up to 11, and you are guaranteed to have all sorts of people yelling about how the outcome was "fixed" and "ridiculous," no matter which way they go.