Given what likely went down (i.e.,
collusion) I doubt Simpson being out would have kept them out of the CFP. The SEC gets paid if Bama is in, regardless of whether Simpson is healthy.
Assuming they did not know that he was badly injured, the reason they were able to get away with the collusion against ND was the fact that
1) An ACC school would benefit
2) That ACC school beat ND head to head
It's BS, but ND is not loved by anyone on the committee and hated by a good % of the public, so they felt confident in getting away with it.
Now, if we assume they knew how badly he is injured, I think they risked this thing blowing up in their face way worse than just ND being upset.
There was a lot of disagreement over how they kept FSU out. And, keeping them out sets a precedent that they are then breaking by keeping Bama in.
Would the non-SEC members of the committee been willing to break that precedent and risk the possible PR debacle if it became known that they knew? Or, because it screwed over ND were they more inclined to do it and think that the fact that it hurt ND would play well enough in the public that people would be less angry that they broke the FSU precedent?
I am more interested than ever in trying to get to the bottom of what information was known in that room and what kind of deals were made. If we can prove that they knew about Simpson's injury and the ACC voices made a deal that reversed the precedent that had previously hurt their conference just so they could further stick it to ND than we have even more ammo to nuke that ACC deal into the sun without paying a dime.