The committee has actually been pretty clear an consistent with their criteria. They come out every week and explain their reasoning. The problem most have is that they can't get the old polling system out of their heads. For 100 years the polls worked the same, they take last week's poll and if you lose you go down you win you go up.
The committee has been steadfast in saying that last weeks poll has zero impact on the next weeks, and they can only rank teams based on the information they have. So last week they felt Ohio State had the second best resume and ranked them 2nd. They couldn't factor in conference championships at that point because no one was a conference champion yet, and it didn't matter that Ohio St. couldn't win a championship because there wasn't a team that had one that could be ahead of them.
This week will be completely different because they can take conference championships into account, and its written into their
protocol.
I also believe that they makeup of the selection committee will mean that the members care more about being consistent and the integrity of the process than the potential ratings ESPN may get, I will be shocked if it is anything but the following:
1. Alabama
2. Clemson
3. Washington
4. Penn State
If its not and Ohio St is at 4, while most will be happy, the process and the members of the committee will have lost all credibility to me.