Looking at historical data is not helpful in these discussions. The massive TV $$ push to prop up the Big Ten and SEC brands is a recent phenomenon. They have been preferred conference for a while, but I mean this recent overt push at all costs.
Just last year, an undefeated Power Conference champion with a solid resume was left out of a 4 team CFP in favor of 1-loss teams with the correct logos. Look at basketball last year too, where the #4 ACC team (Pitt) was left out of a 68 team tournament. Both these scenarios would have been unheard of in years gone by, but the ACC is functionally no different than the MAC or Sun Belt. For both NCAAT and CFP, the discussion is how many Big Ten and SEC* teams can we jam into the event and cling to a tidy shred of credibility, then fill the field with scraps from the other conferences.
*in basketball only, Big 12 is lumped in with Big Ten/SEC for "jam as many teams as possible" because of their recent big money tv deals in hoops. I suspect this may be temporary for a few years as they will likely get downgraded in their next hoops contract.
