Does Penn State Want to Make the Big Ten Championship Game?

The Nittany Lions could play Oregon at Lucas Oil Stadium. But would the game be worth it?

Penn State Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin walks off of the field after the game against the Minnesota Golden Gophers at Huntington Bank Stadium. / Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

For all the college football things being talked about, Penn State being one Michigan victory from the Big Ten Championship Game isn’t one of them. It would be fitting, though. The last time Penn State made the conference title game in 2016, it was the result of Ohio State beating Michigan in overtime. Now the Wolverines could do the same for the Nittany Lions eight years later. 

Of course, that outcome seems unlikely. Michigan is a shell of its national championship team. And while the Wolverines have won six of the last eight games in the series, the Buckeyes are well positioned to swing the series back toward Columbus. That game, as always, will kick at noon ET Saturday at the Shoe.

Those details aside, there might be an even more important question: Does Penn State even want to play Oregon in the Big Ten championship game?

As of Tuesday night’s College Football Playoff rankings, the last of the regular season, Penn State is ranked No. 4, which shakes out to the likely No. 6 overall seed. In the current bracket, the Nittany Lions would host Indiana with a chance to face Miami in the second round. That bracket surely will change.

RELATED: Why Penn State remained ahead of Notre Dame in the latest College Football Playoff rankings?

But since Penn State already has one loss, what would a second do to its standing in the 12-team field? The Nittany Lions would be guaranteed to face No. 1 Oregon in Indianapolis, a tall order indeed so close to punching the program’s first playoff ticket. 

It stands to reason that a handful of teams currently in the field will lose Saturday, or in their conference title games, so it wouldn’t be entirely unique to Penn State. Alternatively, teams that make their conference title games and lose might still be seen a step above the Nittany Lions. So losing isn’t the end, but it’s still a loss.

“We value teams that make the championship. It is of value to us,” Warde Manuel, CFP selection committee chair and Michigan athletic director, said in a conference call Tuesday. “But we've been asked by the commissioners to rank the teams all the way through the championship weekend. … It's another data point to look at it for us to assess teams as it relates to how we do the final top-25 ranking because that's our focus. The focus is not on ranking teams to get to the playoff, it's ranking the top 25 and then we'll let the seeding principles that have been developed by the commissioners to take place after that.”

As for Penn State coach James Franklin, in usual fashion, he’s just trying to go 1-0 this week against Maryland. But given the opportunity this week to take a stance on the issue, it doesn’t sound like he’s interested in missing a chance to pick up some hardware.

“To be honest with you I haven't spent a whole lot of time thinking about that,” Franklin said. “ I'm literally completely focused on the Terps and the University of Maryland, and after that game there are a lot of other things I think that have to happen. But that is a possibility. For us, we want an opportunity to compete as many times as we possibly can this year. If that includes a conference championship game, we would be very, very excited about that opportunity.

“But again, all we have to do is focus on playing Maryland this week and if we're not focused on that, then a lot of these other things that everybody else wants to talk about, then those things become questionable. Those things become challenging. Those things become different. … Anything that happens after Saturday, we'll be excited about those opportunities that we've earned.”

There’s something to be said for that, because the other side of the coin is quite the thing to consider. Penn State winning the Big Ten title means adding a victory over the nation’s top-ranked team. At 12-1 with a conference title under their belts, who's to say the Nittany Lions aren’t the No. 1 overall seed?

What a thing that would be, indeed.

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Ben Jones has been covering Penn State athletics for 13 years, having been to countless home and road games for Nittany Lion sporting events spanning from the Rose Bowl to the NCAA Tournament. He's also the author of the book Happy Valley Hockey. You can read his work at https://benjonesonpennstate.substack.com and follow him on X (Twitter) at Ben_Jones88