Here’s Your College Football Playoff Forecast

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T​he College Football Playoff kicked off 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.

I​n past years, most college football teams eligible for a bowl game might relish a trip to a warmer weather location, such as Arizona, California or Florida.

B​ut this year's first 12-team College Football Playoff is set up to allow higher seeds in Friday and Saturday's first round games to host those games. Three of those locations are in the northern U.S and two of those games involve southern teams traveling into the shivering North.

S​o, here are the forecast weather conditions for the three remaining first round games. Click on each link for a more detailed local forecast.

(Further beef up your forecast 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; Saturday 12 p.m. ET kickoff)

• Temperatures: Middle to upper 20s
• Winds: Northwest from 10 to 15 mph with gusts up to 25 mph
• Wind chills: Middle to upper teens
• No, we don't expect a scene like the photo below. Any accumulating snow in State College will have ended by Saturday morning. For anyone driving to the game, though, any light accumulations from Friday's snow left on untreated roads could lead to some slippery travel.

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

• Temperatures: Low to middle 60s
• Winds: 5 mph or less
• Both these southern teams drew a lucky straw. They're playing an afternoon game in the South. Despite a Friday cold front and a chilly Saturday morning, sunny skies will allow temperatures to rise to a typical late December day for central Texas.

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

• Temperatures: Middle 20s
• Winds: North from 5 to 10 mph
• W​ind chills: Upper teens
• It's a night game, so no sunshine to at least warm it up a little. However, at least any light snow will have long since ended and winds should be lighter than Friday.

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Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.​