Strength of record with an emphasis on schedule difficulty.

If we've learned anything about the College Football Playoff selection committee since inception in 2014, it's this — wins matter. More than anything, schedule strength sticks out for national title contenders at the top of the polls and members value teams with notable victories.

The selection committee's protocol has remained unchanged — their goal is to select the nation's four best teams. The committee assigns the rest to other bowl games in the New Year's Six a few weeks from now prior to bowl season's other tie-ins.

The following criteria is used by committee members when teams are comparable:

Championships won

Strength of schedule

Head-to-head competition (if it occurred)

Comparative outcomes of common opponents (without incentivizing margin of victory)

Tuesday night's reveal is the first of five 25-team rankings released by the selection committee leading up to the final poll — and semifinal matchups — on Sunday, Dec. 8, after conference championships are decided the previous day. You can watch the reveal live on ESPN in the 9 p.m. ET hour between the two basketball games at the State Farm Champions Classic doubleheader in New York City.

Here's a projection of what to expect from the committee's initial rankings: