Penn State’s bowl projections back on track for New Years Six
What a difference one week can make. This time a week ago saw bowl projections from across the college football media landscape feeling confident in sending Penn State to play Ole Miss in the Citrus Bowl, with only a few exceptions to that trend. But one week later, Penn State playing in a New Years Six bowl game is an easy consensus pick.
As outlined last week, Penn State fans were rooting for a few things to happen to help Penn State’s New Years Six bowl outlook improve from its Citrus Bowl projections. And while not everything played out quite as needed, enough things went Penn State’s way to increase its chances of playing in a New Years Six bowl game. LSU taking a hit on the road against unranked Texas A&M was the real game-changer for the Nittany Lions, and Clemson falling out of the playoff picture entirely certainly may have helped.
Getting two Big Ten teams in the College Football Playoff could still be on the table with a little help in the Big 12 and Pac-12 this conference championship weekend if you are still holding out hope for a spot in the Rose Bowl, but we’ll get a better confirmation on that Tuesday night with the release of the next batch of College Football Playoff rankings from the selection committee. Those rankings will also give confirmation to just how confident Penn State should feel about heading to a New Years Six bowl game for the fourth time under head coach James Franklin.
But, until the next rankings are updated, here’s what we are looking at. You may want to pay close attention to this weekend’s American Athletic Conference championship.
247Sports (Brad Crawford): Cotton Bowl vs. Tulane
Matthew OHaren-USA TODAY Sports
You will see something very familiar from this week’s bowl projections, starting with Brad Crawford of 247Sports. Penn State will still be available after the Sugar Bowl and ORange Bowl fill their spots, leaving the Nittany Lions available for a return to the Cotton Bowl to face the highest-ranked Group of 5 conference champion. That champion will come out of the AAC title game between Tulane and UCF.
Athlon Sports (Steven Lassan): Cotton Bowl vs. Tulane
Matthew OHaren-USA TODAY Sports
Penn State’s last trip to the New Years Six was to the Cotton Bowl, which resulted in a high-scoring victory over AAC champion Memphis. It is looking like Penn State could once again be facing the AAC champion in the Cotton Bowl this bowl season, as predicted by Steven Lassan of Athlon Sports.
CBSSports.com (Jerry Palm): Cotton Bowl vs. Tulane
Matthew OHaren-USA TODAY Sports
Jerry Palm’s updated bowl projections are also going with a Penn State-Tulane matchup in the Cotton Bowl. Tulane is getting a home-field advantage in this weekend’s AAC Championship Game against UCF.
CollegeFootballNews.com: Cotton Bowl vs. Tulane
Matthew OHaren-USA TODAY Sports
Penn State has only met Tulane once in program history. The two schools faced each other in the 1979 Liberty Bowl. But like the other projections, College Football News has the Nittany Lions and Green Wave squaring off for the second time in another bowl game.
ESPN (Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach): Cotton Bowl vs. Tulane
Matthew OHaren-USA TODAY Sports
Both of ESPN’s bowl projection experts agree with the masses here as Penn State appears destined to head to the Cotton Bowl and face Tulane, which has been one of the more pleasant stories to follow this season in college football.
