OK, I peeked at your reveal and #5 is Louisiana. The Sun Belt and MAC are considered the two weakest conferences in FBS. I tend to follow the way the polls work in real life (not EA's) when evaluating playoff teams.
12-0 Sun Belt / MAC is roughly equal to:
- 11-1 C-USA / AAC / MWC
- 10-2 P5
In EA's version, a 12-0 team is always ranked higher than an 11-1 team even if the 12-0 team played 12 FCS while 11-1 played a "murderer's row" type schedule. I agree with your decision to leave Louisiana out.
I had a dynasty where I took the ECU head coaching job after being the OC for Illinois. I had several undefeated seasons and only put myself in the playoff as the #4 seed (EA ranked me #1) in a season where several P5 champions had two or three losses.