Although it's a small sample size, the precedent thus far is that 1-loss teams who don't win their conference get in over 2-loss teams that do. That happened in both 2016 and 2017. So far there is no precedent for a 2-loss team being selected for the CFP. There's a table in the linked Wiki page that does a good job of presenting which teams were or weren't P5 conference champs in each year.

There is also little to no evidence that ND has ever been screwed in the CFP rankings, and in 2017 they had us ranked #3 above all other 1-loss teams prior to our loss at Miami. That doesn't sound like the premeditated actions of an evil cartel plotting to exclude us.

I do agree that the CFP committee will have an easy job this year. The lack of inter-conference games significantly reduces the possibility of a conference champ having more than 1 loss. [i.e. Oregon's loss to Auburn in their opening game last season.]

• Click here for link at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_Football_Playoff