Penn State Chases History in the Peach Bowl

Penn State can become the first college football team to win every New Year's 6 bowl game.

Penn State can make bowl history in the Peach Bowl, reaching a college football milestone that no other program has accomplished. Penn State could become the first team to win all six so-called New Year’s 6 bowls with a victory over Ole Miss on Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Kickoff for the 56th Peach Bowl is scheduled for noon ET. ESPN will televise.

Penn State is playing in the Peach Bowl for the first time in program history. The Nittany Lions are playing in their 53rd bowl game overall and are making their fifth appearance in a New Year’s 6 game under head coach James Franklin. The New Year’s 6 bowls are the Peach, Rose, Sugar, Orange, Cotton and Fiesta. Penn State has won each of the other five bowl games, including a victory over Utah in last season’s Rose Bowl. 

By winning the Peach Bowl against No. 11 Ole Miss, Penn State would become the first college football program to claim all six bowl titles. The Lions also would do so in the final season of the current bowl format. Next year, the New Year’s 6 bowl games will be folded into the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff.

Other notes from Penn State’s bowl history:

Penn State is playing in its 53rd bowl game dating to 1923, when the team made its first appearance in the Rose Bowl. The Nittany Lions are tied with Nebraska in bowl appearances.

Penn State’s bowl record is 31-19-2. The Lions are tied for fourth with Oklahoma and Texas in bowl victories and are tied for seventh with Ole Miss in bowl winning percentage (61.5 percent). Penn State leads all Big Ten programs with 31 bowl victories.

This is the 16th different bowl game in which Penn State has played.  Among the New Year’s 6 bowls, Penn State has appeared most often in the Fiesta (seven), followed by the Orange (six) and the Rose (five).

Penn State is making its ninth bowl appearance in 10 seasons under head coach James Franklin. The Lions opted out of a bowl during the shortened 2020 season. Penn State is 4-4 in bowl games under Franklin.

Penn State is 13-5-1 in December bowl games. The Lions are 2-0-1 in bowl games played on Dec. 3, having defeated Georgia Tech 30-15 in the 1961 Gator Bowl and Washington 35-28 in the 2017 fiesta Bowl. Penn State and Florida State tied 17-17 in the 1967 Gator Bowl, played on Dec. 30.

Penn State is making the Big Ten’s 11th appearance in the Peach Bowl. Conference teams are 3-7 in the Peach Bowl, with wins by Purdue (1978), Iowa (1982) and Michigan (2021).