...it just means those games can be treated as exhibition games. You can schedule Alabama as a way to determine how well you stack up against an elite team and you don't have to worry one bit about getting blown out by 50 points -- because as long as you win your conference, you're in.

Or, you can just schedule Liberty, Presbyterian, etc. and use those as glorified practices.

The main thing that's taken away is any need to actually win non-conference games. Those games become 100% meaningless in terms of making it to or not making it to the playoff.