Penn State to Host SMU in College Football Playoff at Beaver Stadium

The No. 6 Nittany Lions will host the No. 11 Mustangs in a first-round playoff game.

Penn State Nittany Lions running back Kaytron Allen run the football during the Big Ten Championship game against the Oregon Ducks at Lucas Oil Stadium. / Grace Hollars/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Penn State will host SMU in a first-round game of the College Football Playoff, pairing the new era of college football with one of the game's best known atmospheres at Beaver Stadium. The playoff game will kick off at noon ET on Dec. 21 as part of a two-day playoff festival four days before Christmas.

Penn State (11-2) fell one spot to No. 4 in the final CFP rankings and earned the No. 6 seed after the top four conference champions received first-round byes. The Nittany Lions remained behind SEC runnerup Texas but above Notre Dame and Ohio State after losing 45-37 to Oregon in the Big Ten Championship Game.

The winner of the Penn State-SMU game will face third-seeded Boise State, the Mountain West champ, in a quarterfinal game at the Fiesta Bowl on New Year's Eve. SMU, the No. 11 seed, remained above Clemson in both the seeds and rankings despite losing the ACC title game to the Tigers on Saturday.

Penn State vs. SMU

The first-ever playoff game in Beaver Stadium.#WeAre x @CFBPlayoff pic.twitter.com/Gxuv745Txq

— Penn State Football (@PennStateFball) December 8, 2024

The Nittany Lions, bitterly disaappointed after their 45-37 loss to Oregon in the Big Ten Championship Game, attempted to train their view forward toward the playoff. Coach James Franklin immediately brought that up with his team after the game.

"One of the things I talked to the guys in the locker room about is, this is a new college football," Franklin said. "... And there's a 12-team playoff, and our season has just begun."

Nevertheless, Franklin sought to pitch the CFP selection committee on his team's seeding merits in the game's aftermath. Penn State was third in last week's rankings, its highest of the CFP era, and lost one-possession games to teams ranked in the top-5 at the time. Oregon (13-0) secured the No. 1 overall seed in the playoff.

"Do I think our resumé matches up with anybody in the country? Yeah, I think it does," Franklin said. "Again, we lost by one possession to the No. 1 team in the country. And I think earlier in the season we lost to the No. 3 team in the country at the time, if I remember correctly. Is that correct? And a one-possession game as well. So I don't think there's anybody in the country that's got that type of resumé in the Big Ten, arguably the best conference in all of college football."

Penn State's players reiterated that message in postgame interviews. Linebacker Kobe King suggested that Penn State could have retained a top-four ranking, if not seeding.

"I would say we’re still worthy to be in the top 4," King said. "We know we still have the playoffs ahead of us, but I want to be worthy of being in the top 4."

Most players made looking forward their default setting, though the sting had not yet evaportated.

"I'm not going to lie to you: I don't look at any of the seeds or rankings," cornerback AJ Harris said. "I just go with the flow. The bye would have been nice, but we’ve got to go handle our business from this point."

Added King, "I was just expressing, 'Guys, stay positive, because we've still got a lot to play for. There’s still something big in front of us, and this is just another piece of adversity that we needed and that we'll learn from."

For King, though, the idea of a home playoff game at Beaver Stadium still resonated.

"It would mean everything because we’re in the playoffs, and it's win or go home," the linebacker said. "Beaver Stadium is probably a little more special in the playoffs."

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