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The field is set, the games are set, and college football fans are in for an absolutely delicious holiday buffet of playoff games.

The College Football Playoff Selection Committee announced its final rankings and rankings for the first-ever field of 12 teams competing for a national title in the expanded playoff format later this month.

The tournament’s top four seeds – Oregon, Georgia, Boise State and Arizona State – receive a bye in the first round of the tournament and prepare to play either New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. They’ll be watching at home as the remaining teams face off in the first round in just under two weeks.

Those matchups are: No. 7 seed Notre Dame hosts No. 10 seed Indiana on Dec. 20 at 8 p.m. ET, No. 6 seed Penn State hosts No. 11 seed Southern Methodist University on Dec. 21 at 12 p.m ET and No. 5 seed Texas hosts No. 12 seed Clemson on Dec. 21 at 4 p.m. ET and on December 21st at 8 p.m. ET, No. 8 seed Ohio State hosts No. 9 seed Tennessee at 8 p.m. ET.

Here are five takeaways from Sunday’s College Football Playoff tournament unveiling.

SMU is in, Alabama is out and the committee makes a statement

The SMU Mustangs were added to the field of 12 despite a heartbreaking loss in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game to Clemson on Saturday, as the Tigers scored a 56-yard field goal as time expired to win the game.

But there were still some nerves. Were the Ponies good enough to overcome three-loss Alabama, the traditional powerhouse that had missed the playoffs just twice since the start of the 2014 season? Only the selection committee knew.

The question posed a major challenge to the committee in the first year of the expanded field: Would teams be penalized for playing in their conference championship game and losing to brand names that were sitting at home on championship Saturday?

By sending the Ponies to the playoffs, the committee set a precedent.

“We looked at the number of wins Alabama had against ranked opponents. We looked at SMU’s schedule and saw that they were undefeated in the conference. Their losses were to ranked teams, but we also looked at Alabama’s loss to unranked teams,” said Warde Manuel, the University of Michigan athletic director who serves as chairman of the committee.

“We value a good schedule. This is why Alabama, as a three-loss team, is ahead of other two-loss teams. … But overall, the way SMU played in that game, losing the field goal in the last second, a great win by Clemson, a great game.

“We just felt like SMU was still ahead of Alabama by 10 points in this particular instance, but that’s no disrespect to the strength of Alabama’s schedule.”

It will be a tough pill for the Tide to swallow, but fans of the traditional conference championship games will be pleased to see the committee ensure their importance in this new system.

Oregon, Georgia, Boise State and Arizona State each won their conference championship games this weekend and now have a few weeks to rest and recover before the quarterfinal games.

Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart drew attention to the impending break as he celebrated his team’s SEC championship game on Saturday, pointing to conference head Greg Sankey as he pointed out the tough season his team had had.

“It means rest for a team that Greg Sankey and his staff have put on the road all year,” Kirby said in a postgame interview. We can take a little break and get ready for the College Football Playoff. Team needs some mental rest.”

Oregon head coach Dan Lanning said Sunday that he plans to use the next few weeks to figure out what the Ducks need to fix before facing the winner of Ohio State-Tennessee.

Since Oregon doesn’t yet know its next opponent, Lanning added that their preparation would focus on finding “potential problems for us in the future” that would remain the same for each opponent.

The first-round game that immediately drew attention is a battle of college football bluebloods.

The Ohio State University Buckeyes and the University of Tennessee Volunteers will play under the lights at Ohio Stadium on December 21st at 8 p.m. The famous venue, nicknamed ‘The Horseshoe’, has hosted numerous classics over the years and will provide an intimidating atmosphere for both teams as the final game of the first round.

The last time the Buckeyes left this field, they had just lost in the final minute to their biggest rival, the University of Michigan. It was the fourth straight loss in the rivalry and it was clear that the more than 100,000 fans in Columbus Stadium were beyond disappointed.

The atmosphere throughout the game was tense and strange. The Buckeyes couldn’t beat a weaker Michigan team and missed their chance to play for a Big Ten championship and a first-round bye.

The Volunteers, meanwhile, will be disappointed not to be able to play at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, but are ready for the test. Tennessee has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years after a long, dark period in the program’s history, and head coach Josh Heupel is confident his team is ready to play.

The question heading into the game is whether Ohio State head coach Ryan Day will be able to do the same for his team. After four straight losses to Michigan and no national titles during his tenure as head coach, Day finds himself on the hot seat despite being one of the winningest coaches in college football.

The University of Texas Longhorns lost a heartbreaker to Georgia in the SEC Championship game on Saturday night. Their spirits should be boosted by the draw in the final round of the playoffs announced on Sunday.

The Longhorns will face Clemson, the ACC champion and only three-loss team on the field, thanks to a massive upset by Syracuse against Miami on Nov. 30 and a game-winning 56-yard field goal as time went on -SMU expired, sneaked into the playoffs in the conference championship game.

If Texas beats the Tigers, they advance to the Peach Bowl, where they will face Big 12 champion Arizona State, the unlikely fourth team to receive a first-round bye. The Sun Devils have played inspiring ball this season behind the heroics of running back Cam Skattebo and quarterback Sam Leavitt. But the Devils have been known to make some mistakes and are untested on the sport’s biggest stage while the Longhorns are making their second straight playoff appearance.

From this point on, the road, as expected, becomes much more difficult. If Texas can win its first two games, the Longhorns would be in the semifinals against Oregon, Ohio State or Tennessee.

Typically, there’s a stark divide in Indiana’s college athletics: football is draped in gold and basketball is deep red.

This year, the gold helmets of Notre Dame will meet the crimson and cream helmets of the Indiana Hoosiers in a first-round game that will not only be about making the playoffs, but also about home state supremacy. It is the first time since 1991 that the two teams have played against each other.

“It’s exciting to say you’re a part of the first home playoff game in Notre Dame history,” Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said.

“We are grateful for the opportunity and look forward to it.”

“We can’t help but notice what a great job they’ve done at Indiana this year…we understand the challenge we face,” Freeman added.

The Fighting Irish are one of the winningest college football teams in history and will enter the game as favorites, but Indiana’s season was one of college football’s biggest stories this year. The Hoosiers’ only loss came against Ohio State, and in their 11 wins they rarely trailed.

Still, beating Notre Dame on its own field in the playoffs would be the greatest victory in program history, and the Hoosiers will look to overcome their own dying football history along with the talent and mystique of Notre Dame.