Wistrom Disciple
Starter
And without a clear cut champion, teams get left out. Just ask the Big 12 from a couple years ago.
To be fair, the 2016 season you're referring to had Oklahoma as the best team with two non-conference losses. The lack of a conference title game did not factor into the equation. The very first year of the CFP (2014) left out TCU & Baylor as one-loss teams. That said, conference title games are not requirements to make the CFP, especially if that team is undefeated in the Power 5.