When asked if playing in near-freezing weather at Ohio State could be a challenge for his team, Tennessee coach Josh Heupel quickly responded that it wouldn’t be the Volunteers’ first rodeo with the cold.

Kicker Max Gilbert even posted a photo of himself standing with his teammates as light snow fell before a morning practice. And Tennessee beat in-state rival Vanderbilt in a tundra of sorts, with a kickoff temperature of 41 degrees (5 Celsius) before dipping to 30 degrees as daylight faded. A combination of heated benches, portable heaters and extra layers helped ease the cold and fueled a 36-23 comeback win.

Temperatures in the high teens and low 20s with a slight chance of snow are forecast for the first game of the College Football Playoff in Columbus, Ohio. But since the climate differences in the Tennessee and Ohio valleys are small, it won’t feel much different when the Vols venture 350 miles north to face the Buckeyes.

“Yeah, it’s a June day in South Dakota,” Heupel joked. “It will be great football weather. A few weeks ago we played in 30 degree temperatures. We practice in the morning, it’s still cool, as cold as it gets in this area. And at the end of the day you fall between the white lines, the weather doesn’t matter. Not the temperature. And we’re ready to play. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

This is the first year the playoffs will have first-round games on campus, and that opens up possibilities in terms of possible weather. Whether the official start of winter will have a chilling effect on the outcome of the expanded 12-team playoffs remains to be seen, but it is a significant departure from the warm climates that Power Four teams are accustomed to for postseason play.

The prospect of spending the Christmas and New Year holidays preparing for a bowl in a sunny location is considered a stimulating end to a long season.

Warmer destinations and indoor stadiums await the first-round winners in the quarterfinals, but no one is complaining about the opportunity to play in the “ideal” soccer weather that many players grew up with. That extra postseason shift may require players to layer, but cold weather comes with the territory and is worth the sacrifice to play for a national championship.

“Whether it snows or not, whether it’s really cold or just a little cold, it is what it is,” said SMU coach Rhett Lashlee, who noted that his players’ expectations for an NFL career certainly include the possibility of one Winters can and should include weather.

“They aspire to play championship football, which is what we can do now,” said Lashlee, who played high school and college football at Arkansas. “The weather will only be a problem if we let it. So we know it will be very cold. It will be very cold for them too. So it’s our 11 against their 11.”

The same goes for fans who are willing to put up with cold hands, feet and noses when it comes to cheering on their team.

“It’s snowing a little more, but as far as temperature goes, we’ve been in the high 80s most of the last few weeks and over 70 on two nights,” said Earl Brown, 72, a longtime Tennessee season ticket holder with his wife Judy and three others will be in The Horseshoe. “Plus, the game is at the top and it will be my 355th game in a row. So I don’t think it really matters whether it’s snow, rain and sleet or 85 degrees. I’ll be at the stadium.”

“We’ll probably do six, seven coats,” Judy Brown said.

State College’s forecast calls for the low 20s to fall into the low teens when Penn State hosts SMU. Lashlee jokingly lamented the comfortable 70-degree training temperatures in Dallas, but doesn’t expect much of an adjustment for his team after playing in the Atlantic Coast Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the 1930s.

The coach added that non-bowl football is also new territory for Penn State in December, meaning it will also be cold on the Nittany Lions’ bench.

In terms of temperature (low to mid 20s), Indiana players and fans won’t notice much of a change between Bloomington and the Hoosiers game 200 miles up the road in South Bend at a matchup at Notre Dame. The forecast for the day calls for a 63% chance of snow, conditions the Fighting Irish embraced in a hype video featuring clips of the white stuff.

Indiana quarterback Kurtis Rourke, who won in the snow at Purdue and saw it happen elsewhere during his game in Ohio, is looking forward to everything that awaits him at Notre Dame Stadium – including echo-raising noise.

“The snowfall in the stadium was pretty cool,” Rourke said. “Snow play is pretty fun, so I’m looking forward to it when that happens.”