Penn State bowl projections: Where are the Lions slotted to go now?
Penn State football is 9-2 after destroying Rutgers 55-10 last Saturday at Beaver Stadium. The Nittany Lions scored in all three phases and overcame a bit of a slow start to win with ease.
“Lots of good things,” head coach James Franklin said. “Probably the thing I’m most proud of, with the staff and the players is, as you guys know, we don’t report injuries, but we’ve had a lot of moving parts. The coaches have handled it the right way, and not allowed it to become an excuse. The players have handled it the right way. I also think we have some depth, and we got some young talented players that have been able to come in and step in and allow that to not be an issue for us as well.
“So you know, I’m proud of them, but overall good when on the road. You look at college football, and you know, winning is hard to do. We’re fortunate to be one of those this week.”
Penn State could improve to 10-2 and finish with that many regular season wins for the first time since 2019 if it tops Michigan State on Saturday. The Lions are heavily projected to do so. They are a 19.5-point favorite.
However, a double-digit win season does not guarantee a New Year’s Six bowl projection. In fact, this week, experts are all lined up against here. Here’s the rundown.
Penn State bowl projections entering Week 13
Erick Smith, USA Today: Penn State vs. Tennesse in the Citrus Bowl (Jan. 2)
Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach, ESPN: PSU vs. Ole Miss in the Citrus Bowl (Jan. 2)
College Football News: PSU vs. LSU in the Citrus Bowl.
Brett McMurphy, The Action Network: Penn State vs. Ole Miss in the Citrus Bowl.
Richard Johnson, SI: PSU vs. Clemson in the Orange Bowl.
Jerry Palm, CBS Sports: Penn State vs. Ole Miss in the Citrus Bowl.
Bill Bender, Sporting News: PSU vs. Ole Miss in the Citrus Bowl.
Where will the Lions end up?
As we saw this past Saturday, things can change across college football in a hurry. While it’s true that more projections than ever before now have Penn State out of the New Year’s Six mix and into the Citrus Bowl, the Lions path to the Orange, Cotton, or Rose Bowl is hardly closed off. However, winning 10 games won’t be enough by itself to get the Lions to one of those contests, in all likelihood. Instead, they will need help from other teams either winning or losing to get into one of those contests. We still think it happens but understand why many experts now have the Lions one tier down on the bowl game hierarchy list.
