The College Football Playoff began Friday with the first of four games this weekend, and two of the remaining games will be played in cold weather, including two night games.

In years past, most college football teams eligible to play in a bowl game might enjoy a trip to a place with warmer weather like Arizona, California or Florida.

But this year’s first 12-team College Football Playoff is designed to allow for higher seeds to play those games in first-round games on Friday and Saturday. Three of these venues are in the northern United States and two of these games involve southern teams traveling to the shivering north.

Here are the forecast weather conditions for the three remaining first round games. Click on each link for a more detailed local forecast.

(Amplify your forecast even further with our detailed, hour-by-hour breakdown for the next 8 days – only available on our Premium Pro Experience.)

SMU at Penn State (State College, Pennsylvania; kickoff Saturday, 12 p.m. ET)

• Temperatures: Mid to upper 20°C

• Wind: Northwest at 10 to 15 mph with gusts up to 25 mph

• Wind Chill: Mid to upper teens

• No, we are not expecting a scene like the photo below. The accumulating snow in State College will have stopped by Saturday morning. However, for anyone driving to the game, light accumulations from Friday’s snow could cause slippery driving on untreated roads.

Clemson at Texas (Austin, Texas; kickoff Saturday, 4 p.m. ET)

• Temperatures: Low to mid 60°C

• Both teams from the south were lucky. They are playing an afternoon game in the south. Despite a cold front on Friday and a cool Saturday morning, sunny skies will raise temperatures to a typical late December day for Central Texas.

Tennessee at Ohio State (Columbus, Ohio; kickoff Saturday, 8 p.m. ET)

• Winds: North at 5 to 10 mph

• It’s a night game, so there’s no sunshine to warm it up at least a little. However, at least the light snowfall will have long since stopped and the wind should be weaker than on Friday.

MORE ON WEATHER.COM:

– Your historic chances for a white Christmas

– Weather.com’s best photos of 2024

– 10 record-breaking weather moments in the US from 2024

Jonathan Erdman is the senior meteorologist at Weather.com and has been reporting on domestic and international weather conditions since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather conditions are his favorite topics. Contact him at Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) And Facebook.