Given the disparity, potential or otherwise, in OOC scheduling, there's no better way to do it with the NCAA aligned like it is. Again, we're talking about the champions of their individual conferences, not the actual playoffs.
Yeah but it determines both in this case. Auburn would have absolutely no path to making the playoff without being able to win the SEC since they are a 2 loss team. Bama might make it anyway with just the one loss, but probably not. It just seems weird to ignore losses when determining who won the division.