It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and we now know when it’ll all happen.

No matter where you land on the bowl debate we can all agree on one thing: there will be at least one game, and probably many others, that we talk about for years to come. At the very least, it’s more football before the offseason begins.

So in the dead of May, here’s the newly released bowl schedule so we can all dream of midday December football in all its glory.

The College Football Playoff bowls

Thank God there’ll be less whining about the Playoff TV ratings this year because we’re back to the original rotation in the fourth year of our grand college football single-elimination experiment. That means that on New Year’s Day, we’ll park our hungover selves in front of the TV and learn who’ll play in the national title game in Atlanta a week later on Jan. 8.

The rest of the New Year’s Six, and other big games

The other four New Year’s Six games are dispersed before New Year’s and even before New Year’s Eve. The NFL is not something college football goes up against if it can help it, but New Year’s Eve falls on a Sunday this year, and the Citrus Bowl ends up on an NFL Sunday. (Yep, that is how college football typically handles a Sunday NYE.)

But this all sets up for a pretty sweet weekend of fun college football, and some stuff with actual stakes on the Monday after.

Everything else

And you know what goes on with this set of bowls. General hilarity, antics, maybe a fight or two.

Also, especially when it comes to this lower tier of bowl games, the bowl system may end up changing in the sense of which players are participating.

According to Fox Sports’ Stewart Mandel, a new rule is being proposed to the NCAA by the American Football Coaches Association that, if passed, would allow players to play in up to four games during a season without burning their redshirt year. So technically speaking, head coaches could save their four-star signees and break them out just in time for bowl games, and the player could still redshirt that season.

And now you have a schedule for the whole deal. It’s a long offseason, but any hint of football definitely helps get us to the season.