It’s here. Finally it’s here.

The expanded College Football Playoff is here, and it couldn’t have come at a more perfect time as the sport lacks a truly elite team at the top. All 12 participants this season are fully capable of winning three or four games en route to a national championship, and the action should be incredible, with first-round games on campus ranging from touchdown Jesus under the lights to all-time. Matches offer everything -Orange matchup on the 40 acres.

Who has the easiest way to lift this golden cylinder? What should you pay attention to? What is the best game?

Here’s a breakdown of the first 12 teams and the matchups that will determine the final team on Jan. 20 in Atlanta.

When it comes to March Madness, an inordinate amount of time is spent debating teams about whether they’ll make the round. That wasn’t the case in football after the wild results of Saturday’s conference title games essentially forced the selection committee to simply choose between the SMU Mustangs or the Alabama Crimson Tide, who have a 9-3 record at home sat.

“The way SMU played in that (title) game and lost on a last-second field goal, we felt SMU had the advantage over Alabama in this one,” the committee chairman said and Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel after the bracket was announced. “This is no disrespect to Alabama’s rigorous schedule.”

The strength of schedule argument, not to mention the overall eye test, was among the most debated points of discussion, and the committee wisely decided not to penalize SMU for leading the standings in its first season in the ACC and with a One field lead lost goal at the last second. The people of Tuscaloosa, Alabama will complain about what kind of message this sends and why the committee didn’t properly evaluate their program. However, Kalen DeBoer’s team shouldn’t have lost to a terrible Oklahoma Sooners team or been pushed around by a loss to the Vanderbilt Commodores.

It was also notable that, despite the lobbying efforts of American Athletic Conference commissioner Tim Pernetti, the Army Black Knights were nowhere near close enough to overtaking the Clemson Tigers as the fifth-seeded conference champion, with the 11-1 Cadets in place 22 finished in the final rankings – six places behind Dabo Swinney’s team.

Speaking of conference commissioners, nearly all FBS leaders have mentioned how this version of the 12-team playoffs will play out before making any changes, and it seems like a big flaw in the current lineup is the lack of reseeding.

The No. 5 Texas Longhorns or No. 6 Penn State Nittany Lions have the best chance at the national title, although they will have to play an extra game (or two if you include the conference championships, in which they both lost).

The Horns are the lowest seeded team with Clemson and will play the Tigers in Austin, but also have the advantage of playing against the Arizona State Sun Devils in the Peach Bowl if they win. While Austin-born Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik proved he’s more than capable of being a threat and ASU running back Cam Skattebo is a liability in the running game, Steve Sarkisian’s team is capable of matching it Easily make it to the semi-finals. If they make it that far, they would play in the Cotton Bowl in early January. Additionally, their bogey team, the Georgia Bulldogs, are on the other side of the bracket, so a possible third meeting would be the final game of the season.

Penn State will have the advantage of hosting an SMU team that has sneaked into the field and would head to the desert with a win to catch the only Group 5 team in the field, the Boise State Broncos. Although Heisman Trophy candidate Ashton Jeanty will be ready to go to the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Eve, the Nittany Lions have the No. 9 rush defense in FBS and can overwhelm QB Maddux Madsen with the pass rush that the Abdul Carter, who decides the game, is involved.

Congratulations to Dan Lanning for overcoming a difficult first season in the Big Ten and remaining undefeated. Your reward is perhaps the most difficult team to play against if you want to win it all.

First up is either a rematch with the No. 8 Ohio State Buckeyes — perhaps the most talented team overall despite two losses — or against the No. 9 Tennessee Volunteers with a ferocious defense. Even if you won the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day, your reward would be a trip to the Cotton Bowl against…either Texas or an Arizona State Sun Devils team that just played at AT&T Stadium and featured plenty of Lone Star State There are games on the roster.

After all, you either have to beat Georgia in Atlanta in the championship game or perhaps a red-hot Notre Dame or Penn State, which gave you all sorts of fits in the Big Ten championship game in Indianapolis on Saturday.

Shot. If Phil Knight really wants Eugene to win a title, his Ducks will earn it the hard way.

Kirby Smart preached ad nauseam about the benefits of rest after winning the SEC, and the Bulldogs expect to be fairly rested when they play either Indiana or Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl. They will be a clear favorite in this game and if they win, they will advance to the Orange Bowl against Penn State or one of the two weakest teams in the field, Boise State or SMU.

Then there’s the matter of playing right behind Athens, Georgia, in January of that title game.

This isn’t Smart’s best team and there are plenty of other issues for Georgia to sort out, but as far as the path and matchups go, the SEC champions will once again earn the title of CFP favorites.

Rudy vs. Hoosiers, who do you have?

The intrastate matchup between the Indiana Hoosiers and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish will kick off the first round and immediately become a showcase for why on-campus games matter when Touchdown Jesus is illuminated under the lights. This will be the 30th meeting between the two programs, but notably the first since 1991 (an Irish victory at Notre Dame Stadium).

Given Indiana coach Curt Cignetti’s swagger, Marcus Freeman better not discount the Hoosiers. There will be some bragging rights given the playoff stakes and the two local rivals meeting in Friday’s prime-time TV slot.

This game is also intriguing because it pits the No. 2 offense in the FBS (Indiana) and the No. 3 unit (Notre Dame) against their respective opposing defenses, both of which are in the top six in points allowed per game. Fun.

If you’re an NFL scout, chances are good that you’ve already booked a trip to Columbus for the Volunteers and Buckeyes’ second on-field meeting (the other being the 1996 Citrus Bowl, a 20-14 Vols win). From the next wave of first-rounders like Buckeyes wideout Jeremiah Smith to this spring’s potential top-five pick like Vols EDGE rusher James Pearce Jr., this matchup has no shortage of high-end talent.

It also makes for an entertaining matchup of Josh Heupel’s offense (averaging 37.3 ppg) against a Jim Knowles-led Ohio State defense that limits opponents to just 10.9 points per game. Add to that the general anxiety felt by Buckeyes fans after the loss to the Michigan Wolverines, and there’s a reason why it was easy for ESPN to peg this as the final game of the first round.

While we don’t send quite as many SEC teams from the South to the North (it gets chilly in Knoxville, Tennessee this time of year), the elements will play a role from both perspectives in three first-round games on the product Pitch and what it will look like on TV.

The initial weather forecast calls for a high of 88°F for South Bend when Notre Dame hosts Indiana and a game-time temperature of around 75°F with wind. The Hoosiers are certainly no strangers to playing in such conditions, but winds exceeding 15 mph could impact both sides’ passing game.

Meanwhile, snow showers are planned for the Friday before Penn State kicks off at noon ET against SMU in State College, Pennsylvania, with a high of 31 on game day. It will also be windy in Columbus with a high of 34 degrees as the Vols head north to the Horseshoe.

If anyone’s lucky, it’s those out in Austin basking in a relatively balmy 63° for the Clemson-Texas matinee.

It should definitely be fun because the College Football Playoff starts in two weeks.