Those are the pairings for the second annual College Football Playoff, announced Sunday by Playoff selection committee chairman Jeff Long.
Clemson is the top seed, followed by Alabama at No. 2, Michigan State at No. 3 and Oklahoma at No. 4. Each team won its respective conference championship. The Orange Bowl will kick off at 4 p.m. ET, and the Cotton Bowl is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET. Both games will air on ESPN.
The Tigers earned the top seed by virtue of being the only unbeaten in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the top tier of college football, and by having three victories against top-10 teams and winning the ACC championship. Alabama, Michigan State and Oklahoma each have one loss.
"Clearly Clemson (is) the No. 1 team in the nation," Long said.
Long said there were people on the selection committee who thought Oklahoma could be the No. 1 team in the Playoff field.
"All four of these teams were very close," Long said. "Little differences in résumés, how they won the games."
Clemson and Oklahoma have met four times, with the series tied 2-2. Clemson won the last meeting 40-6 in last season's Russell Athletic Bowl. Michigan State and Alabama have met just once, in the Capital One Bowl at the end of the 2010 season, a 45-7 Crimson Tide victory.
According to the Sagarin difference, Oklahoma is nearly a three-point favorite over Clemson, and Alabama is roughly a nine-point favorite over Michigan State.
The Playoff championship game is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. ET Jan. 11 on ESPN.
The following the selection committee's final top 25 for the 2015 season.
1. Clemson
2. Alabama
3. Michigan State.
4. Oklahoma
5. Iowa
6. Stanford
7. Ohio State
8. Notre Dame
9. Florida State
10. North Carolina
11. TCU
12. Mississippi
13. Northwestern
14. Michigan
15. Oregon
16. Oklahoma State
17. Baylor
18. Houston
19. Florida
20. LSU
21. Navy
22. Utah
23. Tennessee
24. Temple
25. USC
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