College Football Playoff Championship 2016: Dates, TV Schedule, Live Stream Info

With bowl season upcoming, there is still plenty of college football to be played in the 2016 season. However, there are only four teams remaining in the hunt for a national title.

We're talking about the four teams invited to this year's College Football Playoff. The selection committee made its final decisions Sunday. This year, the playoff will consist of Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Washington.

There is certainly some room for criticism, of course. Penn State defeated the Buckeyes and won the Big Ten championship but was left out of the playoff. However, it's hard to argue that Ohio State isn't one of the top Power Five teams in the nation.

So did the selection committee get things right? What can we expect out of this year's playoff? Today, we're going to look ahead at the pending games and at the path the teams took to get to this point.

College Football Playoff Schedule

Game	Date, Time (ET)	Matchup	National TV	Live Stream
Peach Bowl	Sat. Dec. 31, 3 p.m. or 7 p.m.	Alabama vs. Washington	ESPN	WatchESPN
Fiesta Bowl	Sat. Dec. 31, 3 p.m. or 7 p.m.	Clemson vs. Ohio State	ESPN	WatchESPN
National Championship	Mon. Jan. 9, 8:30 p.m.	TBD	ESPN	WatchESPN

The Top Four

1. Alabama

There's really no surprise here at the top. The Alabama Crimson Tide finished the season with a perfect 13-0 record and dominated virtually every opponent along the way. The closest game Alabama played was a 10-0 victory on the road against LSU.

The question isn't whether Alabama deserves to be ranked No. 1; it's whether one of the other teams in the playoff has enough talent to take down the defending national champion. The first team to get a crack at the Tide is Pac-12 champion Washington.

Washington head coach Chris Peterson seems to believe the challenge is akin to playing an NFL team.

The Peach Bowl matchup between Washington and Alabama should at least be interesting. Washington boasts an offense that has scored an average of 44.5 points per contest this season. Alabama's defense has allowed just 11.8 points per game, best in the nation.

2. Clemson

Clemson won the ACC title Saturday with a 42-35 victory over Virginia Tech. Though there was some late-game drama involved, the win was impressive enough to move the Tigers to the No. 2 spot.

Led by quarterback Deshaun Watson, the Tigers bring another top-notch offense into the playoff. Clemson produces 505.7 yards and 40.2 points per game. This is a unit that should be able to hang with the best in the country if it's firing in all phases.

However, there are those who believe Clemson needs to tighten things up if the team is to avenge last year's championship loss against Alabama. The Tigers didn't play the cleanest of games Saturday—eight team penalties, 386 yards of offense allowed—and that kind of play won't cut it against the Buckeyes.

Sam Gardner of FoxSports.com wrote the following after the ACC championship:

"

They’ll get at least one more chance in another few weeks, and if they do things right the Tigers will end up on the biggest stage of all for the second year. But if the team that nearly blew it Saturday shows up again in the national semifinal, Clemson will be watching this year’s championship game from home.

"

3. Ohio State

Ohio State's position at No. 3 has been questioned for a couple of different reasons. Some believe that Penn State should have taken the Buckeyes' spot in the playoff. Others believe Clemson's ACC win shouldn't have been big enough to jump Ohio State in the rankings.

If the committee believes winning a conference championship carries enough weight for the Tigers to move up a spot, then why didn't the Pac-12 champion Huskies move ahead of Ohio State as well? The likely answer is the committee really wanted the chance of an Alabama-Clemson or Alabama-Ohio State national championship.

The Buckeyes are clearly imperfect. The team lost to the aforementioned Nittany Lions—albeit on a blocked field goal on the road—and barely scraped past Michigan. However, the team's third-ranked scoring defense should give the Buckeyes a chance in the playoff.

4. Washington

The Washington Huskies round out the Top Four, even though the team doesn't appear to be getting a ton of initial respect.

Still, this is a dangerous team that has earned its spot in the playoff. The Huskies average 44.5 points per game and allow just 17.2 points per game. They've embarrassed the likes of Stanford (final score of 44-6), Oregon (70-21) and Colorado (41-10) on their way to a 12-1 record.

The team's only loss came against the now white-hot USC Trojans.

While you could certainly make the case that two-loss Penn State is a better team, the playoff committee obviously didn't feel that way.

Therefore we'll be getting Washington-Alabama in a semifinal matchup—even if it's a game the Huskies aren't sure they want.