GLENDALE, Ariz. — For about 15 years, the SEC ruled postseason 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 clobbering Boise State 31-14 in the Fiesta Bowl on Tuesday night to ensure its conference will claim half of next week’s CFP semifinal field. That’s because Wednesday’s Oregon-Ohio State Rose Bowl is an intra-conference affair — one made possible when the Buckeyes whooped SEC foe Tennessee in the first round.
Earlier on New Year’s Eve, 16.5-point underdog Michigan upset No. 11 Alabama in the ReliaQuest Bowl and nine-point underdog Illinois surprised 15th-ranked South Carolina in the Citrus Bowl, moving the Big Ten to 4-1 vs. the SEC in this year’s CFP/bowl games.
Not bad for a second-rate conference that, according to SEC Network analyst Peter Burns, plays a “PGA Championship course”-caliber schedule compared with the SEC’s U.S. Open-caliber schedules.
In golf terms:
SEC teams play a US Open golf course type schedule
Big 10 teams play a PGA Championship course type schedule
ACC/Big 12 teams play a vacation resort golf type schedule
Just because someone lights up a muni doesn’t make them the best golfer
— Peter Burns (@PeterBurnsESPN) December 21, 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 which were presumably Alabama and South Carolina. (Congrats to both on their 9-4 seasons.)
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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 at his postgame news conference. “I think the Big Ten has prepared our guys (for the Playoff).”
After all, his team, which will soon be one of the last four standing, played 10 games this season against Big Ten competition, including a home victory over the 10-win Illini and an overtime road win 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 likely 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. (As opposed to, say, a 6-7 Oklahoma team.)
Boise State, which finished 12-2, had a great season led by a great player, Heisman runner-up 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 loss.
“He’s an impressive guy,” said Franklin, “but we’re pretty good on defense.”
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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 ripped through the Broncos defense whenever Drew Allar (13-of-25, 171 yards, three TDs, no INTs) wasn’t busy throwing touchdowns to All-American tight end Tyler Warren (six catches, 63 yards, two TDs).
Penn State advances to the Jan. 9 Orange Bowl semifinal, where it will be a modest underdog to whichever of No. 2 seed Georgia or No. 7 seed Notre Dame emerges from Wednesday night’s Sugar Bowl.
Many of us wrote off the Nittany Lions after their familiar-looking 20-13 home loss to Ohio State on Nov. 2, the program’s eighth straight defeat 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 has 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.
“Kaytron breaks tackles. He runs people over. He’s a physical, physical back,” said Franklin. “Nick, if you give him a crease, he has got a chance to go 80 at any minute.”
Though both will be facing a significantly tougher defense whether it’s against Georgia or Notre Dame.
If the Dawgs do 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 those leagues dominated the TV ratings and national media coverage all season. They’ve been dubbed the Power 2 for a reason.
Even then, there’s long been a perceived drop-off from the SEC to the Big Ten — and oftentimes, it’s been indisputable. Not only has commissioner Greg Sankey’s conference won 13 of the past 17 national championships, it’s won 11 of its past 15 Citrus Bowls against the Big Ten and 11 of the leagues’ past 16 Outback/ReliaQuest matchups. 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 to this point been largely hovering in the background, nationally relevant but not nationally prominent. It’s finally getting its moment on the big stage.
The Nittany Lions’ own SEC challenge may be coming a little over a week from now against Georgia, and while Kirby Smart’s juggernaut has won a lot of games over the past four years, it’s hardly been untouchable this year.
Much like the Dawgs’ conference.
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(Photo of Penn State coach James Franklin: Norm Hall / Getty Images)