I'm not saying the rankings are perfect, but Arkansas plays in the hardest sub-conference in all of college football, played pretty damn well down the stretch, and lost to Mizzou on the road. I believe the model is trying to calibrate for that versus a neutral field. Having won seven of the last eight national championships and played in all of them, it's hard to argue that the SEC doesn't play the toughest schedules in the nation. One more point. Alabama, TCU, Oregon, and Florida State all have the best records against the top 30. It takes more than two data points to establish a trend, so Ohio State is eliminated. Baylor is tied with TCU, and while they won that game at home, their non-conference schedule was just too weak and TCU would probably be favored at a neutral site. I also like an eight team playoff format, but you have to cut it off somewhere.
And here I thought Sagarin had a West coast bias. That's always been the accusation, especially during the USC dynasty.