Final Playoff Projection: Clemson is a unanimous No. 1

It is hard to imagine, considering major college football's history of divided polls and dissatisfying mathematic formulas determining its champion, to have a season that could climax without controversy.

But if the final Football Four Playoff Projection of 2015 is any indication, this season is one of those rare occasions.

There are four places available in the College Football Playoff, and unsurprisingly only four teams received consideration from the Playoff Projection panel following Saturday's conference championship games.

Those four teams, in order of seed, are Clemson, Alabama, Oklahoma and Michigan State.

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 (52 points) was a unanimous No. 1 for the first time this season and remained in the projection's top spot for the sixth consecutive week. Alabama (35 points) received all but three second-place votes. The only sliver of uncertainty was whether Michigan State, having defeated unbeaten teams in two of its past three games, would rise from No. 5 in the previous projection to No. 3 in the final one. Ultimately, a single point separated No. 3 Oklahoma (22 points) and the Spartans (21).

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 projection is purely a mock selection with no bearing on the Playoff selection committee's decisions, the last of which will be announced today.

ESPN's selection special begins at noon ET, with the four-team Playoff bracket expected at 12:30. The remainder of the selection committee's top 25, as well as the other four New Year's Six bowl pairings, are scheduled to be announced at roughly 3 p.m.

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