James Franklin and the Nittany Lions are one win away from their first national title game appearance since 1986. First they'll have to defeat the Fighting Irish.

The No. 6 Penn State Nittany Lions face the No. 7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish in a College Football Playoff national semifinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl today. This game is available on multiple streaming services for free.

Both ESPN's matchup analytics and the betting odds are favoring Notre Dame. The Notre Dame vs. Penn State football game is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT start on ESPN on Thursday, Jan. 9. Sean McDonough is expected to do the play-by-play. Greg McElroy is expected to join him in the booth.

Either the Irish or the Nittany Lions will look to book a trip to the Jan. 20 CFP national championship game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

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From 12 teams down to the final four, the College Football Playoff semifinals have arrived. The first semifinal gets underway when the No. 7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the No. 6 Penn State

Here's a look at the series history between Penn State and Notre Dame heading into their College Football Playoff semifinal matchup.

The Penn State Nittany Lions were the most obvious candidate to benefit from the expanded playoff — they would have qualified for a 12-team field in five of the previous eight seasons — but James Franklin couldn’t have envisioned receiving such a straightforward path to the program’s first national title game in 38 years.