The Penn State Nittany Lions are still in the hunt for a berth in the Big Ten Championship Game. They need some help from rival Michigan, however, if they want to make the title game.
But unlike Indiana, Penn State’s road to the game is much simpler going forward if they can handle their business in Week 14.
Penn State’s Big Ten Championship Chances
We’re here to use our CFN College Football Playoff Predictor to indicate just how often or how popular it is that Penn State makes the Big Ten Championship.
MORE: Simulate the College Football Season with CFN’s College Football Playoff Predictor
And in those sims, the Nittany Lions made and won the Big Ten Championship Game just over 5% of the time:
- Oregon: 50.90%
- Ohio State: 42.10%
- Penn State: 5.59%
- Indiana: 1.41%
Here’s how Penn State can still do this.
How Can Penn State Make the Big Ten Championship Game?
For Penn State, there is but one path to making the Big Ten Championship Game and it makes up two games: Penn State vs. Maryland and Ohio State vs. Michigan.
The Nittany Lions need Michigan to knock off Ohio State while also handling their business against the Terps. For Penn State to make the Big Ten Championship Game, they need:
- Ohio State loss
- Penn State win
Simply put — cheer on the Wolverines for a few hours on Saturday while rooting for your Nittany Lions at the same time.
In this scenario, Penn State owns the tiebreaker against Indiana and would have just one conference loss, compared to Ohio State’s two. So, no matter the results of Indiana-Purdue, Penn State would punch their ticket with a win and OSU loss.
How Can Penn State Make the College Football Playoffs?
For the Nittany Lions to make the College Football Playoffs, they need to just simply win. But even then, it’s hard to envision a world where the committee leaves off even a two-loss Penn State team with how the chips have fallen.
The CFN Football Playoff Meter gives Penn State a near 90% chance to make the playoffs this season, simming the results of the rest of the season over 10,000 times to find that figure. Penn State’s current playoff probability of over 90% is the highest of the season.
Nittany Lions’ Remaining Schedule
Using CFN’s Football Playoff Meter, we take a look at the remaining games for Penn State, but with our projected winning probability attached.
- vs. Maryland: 95.1%
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