Playoff Projection: Clemson is No. 1 seed — via tiebreaker
On Tuesday night when the College Football Playoff selection committee reveals its penultimate top 25 for the 2015 season, fans will watch with anticipation in case the committee re-orders the top spot for the first time.
The Football Four Playoff Projection panel came close to doing just that this week.
How close?
Clemson and Alabama earned the exact same number of voting points, with the Tigers retaining the No. 1 seed for the fifth consecutive week by virtue of being ranked ahead of the Crimson Tide on the majority of ballots.
Each panelist enters a four-team ballot, with four points awarded for a No. 1 vote, three for a No. 2, two for a No. 3 and one for a No. 4. Clemson and Alabama each earned 42 points, with the Tigers losing five since last week and Alabama gaining five.
Alabama has been No. 2 for three consecutive weeks.
Oklahoma is the No. 3 seed, followed by Iowa, which narrowly edged its opponent in Saturday's Big Ten Championship, Michigan State. The five teams receiving votes is the fewest number of any week this season.
Clemson, Alabama and Oklahoma accumulated 88% of the possible voting points.
Before this week, the Sooners had not received a No. 1 vote this season. This week they received two. "Oklahoma moves to No. 1 based on the way they're playing right now," said panelist Dan Wolken of USA TODAY Sports. "They have shown no weaknesses for the last six weeks."
Fellow panelist Jim Ross, the WWE Hall of Fame announcer, said of the Sooners, "Only team that needs two and not three wins to reach the Promised Land."
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The Playoff Projection panel is based on the College Football Playoff selection committee's model and includes Wolken, Ross, former FBS coaches Tommy Bowden, Rich Brooks and Jim Grobe, former FBS athletic directors Bill Byrne and Jim Livengood, Michigan State men's basketball coach and football aficionado Tom Izzo and USA TODAY Sports college sports staff members Nicole Auerbach, Paul Myerberg, George Schroeder, Eddie Timanus and Daniel Uthman.
The projection is purely a mock selection with no bearing on the Playoff selection committee's decisions.
The selection committee's penultimate rankings will be announced at 7 p.m. Tuesday on ESPN, with the final ranking to set the Playoff field scheduled for noon Sunday, also on ESPN.