Penn State bowl possibilities: Where do the Lions stand now?

Penn State and the rest of its college football brethren have finished the regular season. The currently No. 11 Nittany Lions are likely to move into the top 10 of the penultimate College Football Playoff rankings on Tuesday after No. 10 Louisville lost to Kentucky on Saturday while they beat Michigan State 42-0 at Ford Field in Detroit. That would help put the head coach James Franklin’s team in the best position possible for the biggest bowl game possible ahead of conference championship weekend. Its postseason destination is one of the many things the program is focused on this week.

“In house, we’ll watch a ton of recruiting film and get organized, going on the road and how we’re going to balance the schedule,” Franklin said Friday. “All the bowl schedules are already set. We already have the calendars all set for where we would go and who we would play. The obvious thing is, I’m going to be in Saturday and Sunday zooming with a ton of perspective offensive coordinator candidates. Then we’ll spend, I think we have three days scheduled to meet with every single player on the team by position coach, and then I’ll meet with some guys as well. And then obviously, we’ll start getting into some practicing and then kind of go from there.

“But meeting with our players is a priority. Watching recruiting film and getting organized, where we’re going and how we’re going to finish this class up the right way, also the transfer portal. We got to be all over those things. And then with technology, now I can sit in my office and get 90 percent of the work done on Zoom which I think makes the most sense.”

What we learned this week and questions to answer now

There are a few items of note here. But, all will play themselves out over the days ahead.

—Michigan beat Ohio State in ‘The Game’ which will make the Buckeyes the highest-ranked one-loss CFP top-25 team entering conference championship weekend. Assuming the Wolverines beat Iowa, will they be the Big Ten’s only representative in the semifinal?

–Could Ole Miss jump the Lions and take the No. 10 spot after winning the Egg Bowl? It feels unlikely, since the Rebels have been behind Penn State all year. But, where those two teams finish will have major New Year’s Six implications.

–Chaos has yet to reign supreme on this college football season. Underdogs across the country continue to put up a good fight week in and week out but have yet to upset many of the big dogs. That continued in Week 13. Will that be the case next weekend? Oregon beating Washington in the PAC-12 title game (the Huskies beat the Ducks earlier this year) would shake up the CFP race. Can Alabama stun Georgia? And, is Florida State going to fall out of the CFP mix and into the Orange Bowl by letting a now two-loss Louisville team upset it in the ACC title game?

Will Penn State be in a New Year’s Six game?

Blue-White Illustrated has been tracking the latest bowl projections weekly. They have almost unanimously had Penn State in a New Year’s Six game since September. The Lions dropped some, of course, after losing once in October and then again in November. But, it seems destined to land in a NY6 game for the second straight season.

National media members will put their latest projections out throughout the day on Sunday and Monday. The Orange Bowl looks unlikely as a potential destination. It gets the first pick after the top four are set. But, it must take the highest-ranked ACC team not in the Playoff to play the highest-ranked non-Playoff team from the Big Ten, SEC, or Notre Dame. It doesn’t feel like Penn State will be high enough to head to Miami. Unless, of course, Ohio State gets into the Playoff. But, even then, Missouri should be ahead of the Lions and go to Miami, Fla., for that game.

After the committee selects the Playoff semifinalists and the Orange Bowl gets its teams, it will slot the Peach, Cotton, and Fiesta bowls. All are at-large vs. at-large games, which means there are no conference affiliation requirements. But, the highest-ranked Group of Five team must be given one of the six available spots. That’s true even if the team is outside the top 12. Which game gets that team (likely Tulane) this year, however, is a committee decision. It’s why it’s a bit more ambiguous than normal right now regarding where the Lions could end up.

We’ve stuck with the Peach for some time. So, we’ll continue to do that. That game is at Noon ET on Dec. 30 in Atlanta, Ga. But, could alignment come from those who make predictions for the Fiesta or Cotton over the next 48 hours? We’ll see, as those come out later than this story’s 7 a.m. ET publication time oN Nov. 26. However, our bet is that a Penn State-Tulane contest in the Peach Bowl is what most experts predict over the next 48 hours.