I think people greatly undervalue home field advantage. All of the home teams won. Say the game is at Clemson... Could have gone way different. Clemson had a shot. Game is in Bloomington? Could be different. Game is in Texas instead of Pennsylvania? Could be different. Game is in Knoxville? Definitely a lot different. And as far as the Top 8 go, Tennessee and Indiana were #7 and #8 in the Playoff Rankings. They happened to be moved down to the 9 and 10 seed(ranking and seeds are different things) because of Boise State and Arizona State getting byes.