of who you think has looked/is the best team a vote for us is very justifiable. Equally justifiable would be Bama as a two touchdown favorite over us.
other than who has DONE the most.
Rankings are not supposed to be based on who WOULD win. That's what Vegas is for.
If rankings are based on who would win, why bother playing the games at all?
If they aren't, then one isn't good at evaluating what a team has "done." The degree to which a team dominates an inferior team is both predictive of how they'd do against a better team and reflects how good that team is. But it's appropriate to give the edge to the team that has won more games against stronger opponents because it eliminated doubt as to its ability to compete at that level.
But generally, gauging dominance that leads one to predict an Alabama victory over ND is a reflection of what a team has done.
It's more subjective and many of the voters in these types of polls don't even watch the games, but in theory it should be acceptable to watch two undefeated teams and judge that one has looked more impressive. I will acknowledge that Alabama's schedule has been exceptionally weak (the SEC West is hot garbage) but based on an eye test, it would be hard to rank anyone but Alabama number one.
as a tie-breaker, the eye test seems fine. For example, if you have two 11-1 teams, and one of them lost the second game of the season because their starting qb got concussed and they just dominated everyone else, that would be reason to give them the nod- all else equal.
But I don't think the eye test really makes sense as a primary criteria. For example, if - in some crazy world- Alabama loses to Tennessee and drops another game, there is no way they should make the playoff. Even if they "look great" and would be favored by 2 touchdowns against everyone they play. At the end of it, all that should matter is who you beat and if you won.
Just because the Russians "looked better" than the US Ice Hockey team, doesn't mean they should get a chance to play for gold.
Michigan now in the top 10. Throw in the fact that they have a loss and I would give us the nod.