Playoff Projection will get a Playoff preview this week

What could possibly match a season-ending College Football Playoff? How about a midseason preview?

On Saturday night the No. 3 team in the Football Four Playoff Projection will face the No. 6 team when Louisville visits Clemson, and earlier in the day the No. 4 team, Michigan, will host the No. 8 team, Wisconsin.

Those four teams make up half the vote-getters in the Playoff Projection panel's second collaboration of 2016. And the No. 5 team, Stanford, visits an unbeaten divisional opponent Friday night when it plays Washington.

Alabama, Ohio State and Louisville remained the top three teams in this week's projection, accounting for 88% of the total possible voting points. Five teams split the other 12%.

The Playoff Projection panel is based on the College Football Playoff selection committee's model and includes former FBS coaches Frank Beamer, Tommy Bowden and Rich Brooks, former FBS athletic directors Mike Alden, Bill Byrne and Jim Livengood, WWE Hall of Fame announcer Jim Ross, and USA TODAY Sports college sports staff members Nicole Auerbach, Paul Myerberg, George Schroeder, Eddie Timanus, Daniel Uthman and Dan Wolken.

The Playoff Projection is in its fourth 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.