Yes, it’s here. Sort of.

Week 9 is in the books, so now we can try to figure out just what in the world the first Playoff poll is going to look like.

There will inevitably be a surprise or two. After all, it’s a show for entertainment. The rankings don’t really matter — until they do. Let’s not forget the first Playoff poll of 2016 when Texas A&M stunningly came in at No. 4 despite the fact that it had one loss and was at No. 7 in the Associated Press Top 25 (it just so happened that A&M faced Alabama a few days after the first poll).

Again, this is for entertainment, so let’s not freak out too much. A lot of unpredictable things can happen.

But I’m confident that we’ll see these 5 things.

1. The SEC will have 2 teams in the top … 3

So I have a fire take that people are going to spend way too much time debating on Tuesday night. And really, it’s not even that fire of a take.

ALABAMA WILL BE NO. 1.

Ok, that’s not my fire take. That’s my lock of the century. My lukewarm take isn’t quite a lock, but I feel like there’s a decent chance it happens.

LSU WILL BE NO. 3.

That means the Tigers will come in ahead of unbeaten Notre Dame, despite the fact that they have one loss. Why? Well, LSU is sitting there with four wins against ranked teams, three of which came against the top 10. Nobody else can say that. And it isn’t just that the Tigers won those games, it’s that they were dominant. They beat three ranked foes by at least 16 points.

The selection committee won’t obsess over the fact that LSU has a loss — to a ranked Florida team on the road — because of all the quality wins. It’s about who you beat. That’s not a knock on Notre Dame, which has a solid résumé so far with wins against Michigan, Virginia Tech and Stanford, but LSU has been more battle-tested. On top of that, the selection committee loves rewarding teams that win headliner nonconference games like the Tigers did. Ergo, a top-3 slot.

That’ll set up the showdown in Baton Rouge between top-3 teams next week. And if LSU somehow won that, there’s no doubt they’d be worthy of the No. 1 spot.

But that’s a massive “if.”

2. UCF will be in the top 10 and everyone will have a strong opinion

Except me. That’s because I could really argue both sides of the coin here.

The Knights have yet to face a top-25 team this year, and their lone win against a Power 5 team is against Pitt, which doesn’t even have a winning record. Nearly everyone in the top 25 will have more quality wins than UCF. Sorry, UCF. Memphis doesn’t count as a quality win.

Having said that, the Knights could end up finishing the season against three straight ranked opponents if they’re able to beat USF and get to another AAC Championship. Their final month is certainly more difficult than most will give it credit for because it doesn’t have a Power 5 matchup.

But on the flip side, why should that matter with this current ranking? If the selection committee is really all about quality wins, why is it rewarding a UCF team without any of those in 2018? That just shows that preseason rankings have too much of a say in this, and that the selection committee isn’t really looking at this with a blank slate.

At the same time, what else does UCF have to do to show it’s legit? It is riding a 20-game winning streak that includes wins against Auburn, as well as two other ranked foes. They’ve blown teams out consistently like one would expect a powerhouse to do.

Fake national champions or not, they aren’t exactly sneaking up on anyone like they did last year (especially with how loud they’ve been on social media).

Sick of the back and forth already? Just mute the TV when they start talking about the Knights.

3. Georgia will be outside the top 5, which it should be

Don’t get me wrong. I thought Saturday was the Dawgs’ best performance of the year. That was the upside we were waiting to see from Georgia, which finally looked like it figured out the type of offensive balance it needs to get back to the level it was at last year.

Having said that, I expect Georgia to come in at No. 6 on Tuesday.

This comes down to quality wins. That was really Georgia’s first quality mark on the résumé this year.

Michigan is coming off consecutive wins against top-25 wins. Both of them have nearly identical losses, but I’d still put more weight in the quality of wins. Does that matter? No, because obviously this is going to come down to whether Georgia can win out and take down Goliath, AKA Alabama.

That’s the good news for the Dawgs. I actually think their Playoff ranking on a week-to-week basis is all but meaningless at this point. They still have a chance for the ultimate résumé-booster, and really any blemish is going to cost the Dawgs at a chance to repeat in the field.

4. Ohio State will get way too much love

I mean, probably. Right? The selection committee will sneak Ohio State in front of Kentucky, despite the fact that the latter has more wins against Power 5 teams with winning records.

That’s another thing worth bringing up. That TCU win for Ohio State has not aged well at all. Why do I say that? Well, because the Horned Frogs lost to Kansas on Saturday.

In football!

Meanwhile, Ohio State’s lone quality win was at Penn State, and its lone loss was a blowout. Kentucky, on the other hand, lost in overtime against a Texas A&M squad that’s now in the top 25.

It won’t matter to the selection committee that Ohio State looked horrendous the last time it was on the field. It’ll get too much credit for in-season rankings, and the fact that OSU’s résumé isn’t that good for a one-loss team will be overlooked. The Buckeyes will likely come in at No. 9 and I’ll get irrationally frustrated.

OK, maybe I’m irrationally frustrated just thinking about it.

5. The ESPN crew will spend time meaninglessly debating 2-loss teams

I’m gonna go ahead and say it. The only scenario in which a two-loss team makes the field is if LSU has a down-to-the-wire game with Alabama and pure craziness ensues. I’m talking a BUNCH of two-loss conference champs. And I suppose there’s a chance that Michigan could be a two-loss conference champ, so that could still have a chance.

Other than that, though, I don’t see a scenario in which a two-loss team breaks that barrier, but don’t tell some of the ESPN crew about that. You know it’s going to be a silly topic of discussion.

“Which two-loss team has the best shot of making the field?”

Nobody that currently has two losses is going to make the Playoff. Period. I’ll eat crow if that happens.

I don’t want to hear about how teams like Penn State or Utah can make the field. Shoot, I don’t even want to hear about a team like Washington State, which played one of the worst non-conference schedules we’ve seen in recent memory for a Power 5 team. I’d much rather talk hypotheticals about teams in the top 10.

I guess as long as the ESPN crew isn’t discussing 3-loss teams like USC in 2016, that’s progress.