Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas, Penn State. Your early present: The easiest playoff path for a No. 6 seed in the history of sports!

Heck no, Penn State would not have been better off beating Oregon and winning the Big Ten title. The reward for being the No. 1 overall seed would have been a potential matchup with Ohio State in the second round of the College Football Playoff.

Everybody should know by now that Penn State should never, ever, ever want anything to do with the Buckeyes when it comes to trying to win a championship. Unless a miracle occurs on the field, like it did in 2016, I have pretty much zero confidence that James Franklin could beat Ohio State in a playoff game.

With the expanded playoff, football fans need to re-evaluate how they judge their teams and what constitutes success.

From here on out, the ONLY thing that will constitute success is advancing far in the playoff.

Win a conference championship? That’s fine, and there certainly would be lots of good memories.

But holding on to the belief that a conference championship would be more important than, say, reaching the final four of the playoff is silly and outdated thinking.

Just like in college basketball, tournament success is what matters. I’m a lifelong Syracuse fan, and I couldn’t care less how many Big East, or now ACC, titles the Orange have won. The only thing that has ever mattered to me was going a long way in the tournament.

Penn State should beat SMU at Beaver Stadium on Saturday. The Lions are favored by 8 ½ points, and there’s just no way they should lose that game at home.

I’ll guarantee Penn State fans feel better about playing SMU than they would if the opponent had been Alabama, which nearly happened. Getting to skip Bama was Christmas present number one.

The big present this year would come in the second round against Boise State. Early betting lines have Penn State favored by a whopping 11 ½ points over Boise, which is an absurd number for a 6 seed to be favored over a 3 seed.

A team like Boise should never, ever be a 3 seed. It’s an absolute joke that the bracket format this year stipulated conference champs such as Boise and Arizona State be locked into top four seeds. Those teams don’t belong anywhere near the top four, and you should definitely look to see the seeding format change next year to assure the best teams are near the top.

But this year, No. 6 seed Penn State landed the easy bracket — and avoided Ohio State.

The tournament is about being able to survive and advance. Penn State has a far greater chance to advance to the third round than it would have had it won the Big Ten title.

Then, if the Lions get to the third round, they could be facing a Georgia team that, for now, is expected to be without injured starting quarterback Carson Beck. Georgia, I believe, will still beat Penn State, but the Lions definitely could win that game.

It’s all right there, folks. The easiest path, on paper, that Penn State might ever get to the national championship game.

That would not have happened had the Lions beaten Oregon. So, be thankful they didn’t.

Cory Giger is the host of “Sports Central” weekdays from 4-5 on 96.1 Hank FM.