Playoff Projection: Fourth seed is the tough seed
As two of the hottest teams in college football, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State appear headed to highest-stakes Bedlam matchup in the game's history.
Perhaps it's good that the better team will be decided on the field, because the Football Four Playoff Projection panel had difficulty deciding between the two in its voting this week.
The Sooners and Cowboys each received six voting points, the fourth-best total of the week, but it was the Cowboys who earned the panel's fourth seed by virtue of appearing on more ballots. Five panelists voted for Oklahoma State, while four listed Oklahoma.
The Cowboys and Sooners are scheduled to meet Nov. 28 in Stillwater at a time to be determined.
Clemson earned the projected top seed for the third consecutive week, followed by Alabama and Ohio State. That trio of teams combined to accumulate 87% of the possible voting points.
In addition to Oklahoma State and Oklahoma, Notre Dame earned three voting points for sixth place, and Iowa received one vote in seventh. Seven teams is the smallest pool of vote-getters this season.
The Playoff Projection is in its third year. 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. The projection is purely a mock selection with no bearing on the Playoff selection committee's decisions.
The Playoff Projection panel is based on the College Football Playoff selection committee's model and includes 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, WWE Hall of Fame announcer Jim Ross and Paste BN Sports college sports staff members Nicole Auerbach, Paul Myerberg, George Schroeder, Eddie Timanus, Daniel Uthman and Dan Wolken.
The College Football Playoff selection committee, which had a top four of Clemson, Alabama, Ohio State and Notre Dame last week, is scheduled to release its latest top 25 tonight following the Duke-Kentucky men's basketball matchup on ESPN.