Yes, I get that IU and SMU probably didn't belong, but if the system was setup to actually rank the 12 playoff teams in order of quality, the likelihood of all the games being blowouts would be much less.
The 4 byes SHOULD be Oregon, UGA, Texas, and PSU. Those are the top 4 teams according to the committee.
Then you'd have:
5 ND hosting 12 Clemson
6 OSU hosting 11 ASU
7 UTk hosting 10 SMU
8 IU hosting 9 Boise
Those games would have a much better chance of being competitive.
And if you want to argue Bama or Ole Miss should be in, fine. The same problem exists due to the contrived manner in which they seed teams currently.