I just can't see how you can say a team that lost to Utah passes the eye test. Utah is horrible. Now sure if Stanford finishes the year 12-1 they will have a very nice season, but they will not be chosen ahead of Ohio State if OSU is 13-0. Just the reality of the situation. And for the record, Stanford scheduled San Jose St. and Army. All of the major teams schedule cupcakes, just the nature of the beast at this point (though OSU has said its future schedules will only include teams from the big conferences - 2017 and beyond based on already scheduled games).
And as I've said it will be the four most deserving teams and whether you want to admit it or not going unbeaten in a major conference will always be an argument for a team as a reason it is deserving.
As for talent, OSU has 6 players projected to be drafted (Shazier, Roby, Mewhort, Barnett, Hyde, and Bryant with 4 others with outside shots), Stanford has 5 (Murphy, Gardner, Skov, Hewitt, and Mauro with no one else even close). OSU has 2 players rated as first round picks (Shazier and Roby). Stanford has 0. The reason many felt OSU would go unbeaten is because they have a lot of talent, are coming off an unbeaten season, and are in Meyer's 2nd year at the program (typically his teams take a huge leap that year). Now sure it helps a bit that the Big Ten is a bit down, but it isn't like it is the MAC. There is still plenty of talent in the conference.
To even compare the Big Ten to the AAC is just silly. Though to be fair to Louisville a lot of their hype was because of their impressive bowl victory against Florida, which carried over to this season.