Even if they publicly do not talk about it among themselves, it does not mean that the thought doesn't cross the mind of at least 1 person or that it couldn't have some influence on a person's decision. Because the Committee members have flexibility on how they vote it is possible a member can use 1 standard for a school and a completely different standard for a different school in the same poll.

Also, the fact that the sample size of regular season games among the power conferences is so small, it gives the Committee members even more flexibility to arbitrarily determine that a victory in Conference A is "better" than Conference B. So when the Committee says it wants the 4 "best" or 4 "most deserving" participants in the Playoff, then the Committee is saying "We are going to arbitrarily pick the 4 schools and the public will accept the outcome without too many questions." As far as whether economics plays a factor in the Committee's decision, we will never know because we will never know what each member is truly thinking when it makes its final decision. So it would not surprise me if economics is or is not a factor.