I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait until Friday night.

What’s happening that night? The first game of the first-ever 12-team college football national championship tournament will kick off with No. 7 seed Notre Dame hosting No. 10 seed Indiana at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana.

Can you believe the Hoosiers had such a great year (11-1) leading up to the very first 12-team tournament? And can you believe they’ll be taking on intrastate rival Notre Dame? Are these two schools true rivals or is it a one-sided affair with the Fighting Irish barely paying any attention to the basketball program located 200 miles away?

Are the Hoosiers legit contenders? If they are, they’ll surely have the attention of those smug Notre Dame fans and Touchdown Jesus by about 11 p.m. on Friday night.

What are you doing on Saturday? Now, that will be a fantastic day of college football watching. In fact, just like with thousands of folks who enjoy watching Rounds 1 and 2 of the annual NCAA men’s college basketball tournament, I might suddenly come down with a case of the flu…if I were working. Thankfully, I am not.

I’ll get to watch No. 11 SMU take on No. 6 Penn State at Happy Valley at noon. At 4 p.m., it will be No. 12 Clemson taking on No. 5 Texas. Finally, I’ll end my evening by watching No. 9 seed Tennessee try and plant its flag into the middle of Ohio Stadium after taking on No. 8 seed Ohio State, with kickoff set for 8 p.m.

And that’s just the first round. What about the squads that get byes this weekend and will take on the survivors in Round 2, starting on December 31, when No. 3 Boise State battles the winner of Penn State and SMU in the Fiesta Bowl?

On New Year’s Day, Arizona State takes on the Texas/Clemson winner in the Peach Bowl at 1 p.m. At 5 p.m., No. 1 Oregon clashes with the winner of Tennessee/Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. Finally, the holiday will end with fireworks when No. 2 Georgia battles the winner of the Notre Dame/Indiana game in the Sugar Bowl.

And there will still be four teams left after that round, with the Orange Bowl hosting one semifinal matchup and the Cotton Bowl hosting the other.

Then, we’ll have the national championship game on Monday, January 20.

Seriously, why did it take the powers that be so many years to get to this fantastic sports extravaganza? They used to blame academics and keeping the student athletes from their studies for a prolonged period, but it will literally take one month to go from 12 teams to one.

Anyway, I’m sorry it took this long and we had to go from no national title game to a national title game to a four-team playoff to a 12-team tournament, but I’m happy we are here.

I’m being genuine when I say that this 12-team college football national championship playoff could quickly become the biggest thing in all of sports–both collegiately and professionally.

Speaking of smugness, I believe the NFL and its supporters severely underestimate the passion college football fans have for their teams. There are more than a few NFL cities that like to say they treat the sport of football as a religion, but they ain’t seen nothing like the religious fervor that college football faithful embody every Saturday afternoon in the fall.

How big could this 12-team tournament become? So big that it’s probably just a matter of time before the first-round matchups get moved to bowl games. How much more important would the Gator Bowl seem if it was the site of a first-round contest? The Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl would be even greater if it hosted a 7 vs. 10 matchup instead of two schools who had just okay seasons.

I’ll leave you with one more religious note:

Can I get an amen for the 12-team college football national championship tournament?