Penn State enters the CFP semifinals carrying the Big Ten flag, while the SEC no longer looks untouchable

GLENDALE, Ariz. – For about 15 years, the SEC ruled the postseason in college football, but so far in 2024 postseason games, the Big Ten has owned the SEC. So much so that Michigan managed to beat Alabama in two different bowl games in the same calendar year.

The calendar year began with the soon-to-be national champion Wolverines beating the Tide in the Rose Bowl. It ended with Penn State beating Boise State 31-14 in the Fiesta Bowl on Tuesday night to ensure its conference will claim half of next week’s CFP semifinals. That’s because Wednesday’s Oregon-Ohio State Rose Bowl is an intra-conference affair — an affair made possible when the Buckeyes beat SEC foe Tennessee in the first round.

Earlier on New Year’s Eve, 16.5-point underdog Michigan surprised No. 11 Alabama in the ReliaQuest Bowl, and nine-point underdog Illinois stunned 15th-ranked South Carolina in the Citrus Bowl to move the Big Ten to 4-1 against the SEC in this year’s CFP/bowl games.

Not bad for a second-ranked conference that, according to SEC Network analyst Peter Burns, plays a “PGA Championship course”-caliber schedule compared to the SEC’s US Open-caliber schedules.

In golf terms:

SEC teams play a US Open style of golf course

The Major 10 teams play a PGA Championship course schedule

ACC/Big 12 teams play a resort golf-type schedule

Just because someone lights up a muni doesn’t make them the best golfer

— Peter Burns (@PeterBurnsESPN) 21 December 2024

A conference that took a lot of heat after Notre Dame trucked Indiana, a team Kirk Herbstreit said should have been left out of the playoff in favor of “other teams that could have been there.” Two of them were probably Alabama and South Carolina. (Congratulations to both on their 9-4 seasons.)

The winning coach here Tuesday, Penn State’s James Franklin, spent three seasons at Vanderbilt (2011-13) prior to his 11-year run in State College.

“I have tremendous respect for both conferences and I think I have a perspective that most people don’t have,” he said in his postgame press conference. “I think the Big Ten has prepared our guys (for the playoffs).”

After all, his team, which will soon be one of the final four standing, played 10 games this season against Big Ten competition, including a home win over the 10-win Illini and an overtime road victory at USC. The Trojans finished 7-6 after a Las Vegas Bowl win over their own SEC foe, Texas A&M.

With so much SEC reverence, the Wolverines and Illini probably earned more respect for their second-tier bowl wins than Penn State will for winning a pair of Playoff games against ACC foe SMU and Mountain West foe Boise State. That would be unfair. Thanks to the super-sized Playoff field, Penn State has already played 15 games this season, losing only to top-five opponents Ohio State and Oregon. (Unlike, say, a 6-7 Oklahoma team.)

Boise State, which finished 12-2, had a great season led by a great player, Heisman-near Ashton Jeanty. The Nittany Lions held Jeanty (30 carries, 104 yards) to his quietest game of the season. He crossed the 100-yard mark with two minutes left and the game out of reach, but Penn State held him to 3 yards or less on two-thirds of his 30 carries — including seven that went for a loss.

“He’s an impressive guy,” Franklin said, “but we’re pretty good on defense.”

And Penn State has its own stud running backs, Kaytron Allen (17 carries, 134 yards) and Nick Singleton (12 carries, 87 yards, one TD), who tore through the Broncos defense every time Drew Allar (13-of-25 , 171) yards, three TDs, no INTs) was in no rush to throw touchdowns to All-American tight end Tyler Warren (six catches, 63 yards, two TDs).

Penn State advances to the Orange Bowl semifinals on Jan. 9, where it will be a modest underdog to either of the No. 2 seed Georgia or no. 7 seed Notre Dame is coming off Wednesday night’s Sugar Bowl.

Many of us wrote off the Nittany Lions after their familiar 20-13 home loss to Ohio State on Nov. 2, the program’s eighth straight loss to the Buckeyes. But Penn State’s offense quietly kicked it up a notch starting with the following week’s 35-6 win over Washington, and it’s stayed there ever since. Even in Penn State’s 45-37 loss to No. 1 Oregon in the Big Ten championship, its offense was explosive. As it was against Boise State, when Allen and Singleton both averaged more than 7 yards per carry. carry.

“Kaytron breaks tackles. He runs people over. He’s a physical, physical back,” Franklin said. “Nick, if you give him a crease, he’s got a chance to be 80 at any time.”

Although both will face significantly tougher defenses, whether against Georgia or Notre Dame.

If the Dawgs beat the Irish in New Orleans, and if Texas beats Arizona State in the Peach Bowl, we’ll have ourselves an all-Big Ten/SEC Final Four. Which would be fitting given the way these leagues dominated television ratings and national media coverage all season. They have been dubbed the Power 2 for a reason.

Even then, there has long been a perceived drop-off from the SEC to the Big Ten — and often it has been indisputable. Not only has commissioner Greg Sankey’s conference won 13 of the last 17 national championships, it has won 11 of its last 15 Citrus Bowls against the Big Ten and 11 of the leagues’ last 16 Outback/ReliaQuest games. There were several occasions in the late 2000s/early 2010s when former Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany had to field questions about his league’s latest New Year’s Day debacle.

But those were the days when the conference often felt like Ohio State and everyone else. That began to change with Michigan’s resurgence under Jim Harbaugh. And this year, the league added a new national power in Oregon.

Penn State, now 34-7 over the past three seasons, has largely hovered in the background to this point, nationally relevant but not nationally prominent. It finally gets its moment on the big stage.

The Nittany Lions’ own SEC challenge may come in just over a week against Georgia, and while Kirby Smart’s man has won plenty of games over the past four years, it’s hardly been untouchable this year.

Much like the Dawgs’ conference.

(Photo by Penn State coach James Franklin: Norm Hall/Getty Images)