I agree with you about the out of conference schedule. Penn State had a cupcake schedule early on (Though they destroyed Oregon State 45-14 who later on went to beat USC)
Here's my issue though. Why is it that people just assume a Big Ten school is incapable of beating an SEC or Big 12 school in the championship. I hear people all the time saying they hope Penn State doesn't make it because they'll just get crushed by 'bama or Texas Tech, or Texas, or Oklahoma, or whoever.
Yes, the Big Ten has less ranked teams, but I think it's due to a different style of play. Big Ten teams are more likely to have traditional, practical offenses (more like you'd see in the NFL), while it seems the "better" conferences are going more experimental with their offenses, which tends to lead to scoring in high volume. Meanwhile, the Big Ten continues to focus on defense. Unfortunately, a solid defensive effort doesn't do as much for a team in the rankings as a high scoring offensive effort.
Take Texas Tech for example. Their offense scores about 45 points per game, whereas Penn State's defense only yields 11 points per game, while also scoring a great deal this year. Who's to say which statistic is more impressive? Pollsters tend to forget that football is 50% offensive and 50% defensive and that a solid, fundamentally sound defense is always capable of taking down a flashy offense.