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 semifinals of the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff begin Thursday with a blockbuster Orange Bowl matchup between (6) Penn State and (7) Notre Dame. Both teams have leaned heavily on their defenses and run games to reach the doorstep of the College Football Playoff National Championship.

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.