Penn State doesn’t deserve to be in the Big Ten Championship Game, but the Nittany Lions have a massive opportunity to help College Football Playoff chances | Sporting News

The Big Ten Championship is a game that has been dominated by Ohio State and Michigan since 2016. No team other than the Buckeyes or Wolverines has won the Big Ten Championship since 2016, and no team other than those two powerhouses has represented the East Division in that Big Ten Championship Game since 2016, but that all changes this year.

For the first time since 2016, Penn State will find themselves in the conference championship, and they have nobody to thank other than the only team they lost to this season, the Buckeyes. Ohio State, the No. 2 team in the nation according to the AP Poll entering week 14, lost to its rival, the Michigan Wolverines, in a 13-10 battle in Columbus.

Thanks to Ohio State’s loss, the door opened for Penn State to punch its ticket to the Big Ten Championship Game against No. 1 Oregon in Indianapolis. All Penn State had to do was beat Maryland, which the Nittany Lions did, 44-7.

November 30 was a dream day for the Nittany Lions and their fans as TE Tyler Warren broke the school record for most receiving TDs for a TE and set a Big Ten record for most receptions by a tight end in the first quarter of a game.

For Penn State, and head coach James Franklin, winning the Big Ten Championship game would be massive.

Penn State is looked at as a very respectable college football program, but in the Big Ten, Penn State is always mentioned as a third fiddle behind Ohio State and Michigan, but a win here would surely give the Nittany Lions some more respect.

All season Penn State has been looked at as overrated, and right now many fans are talking about how Ohio State choked its shot at the Big Ten Championship and how Penn State didn’t earn its spot in the Championship. A win against the No. 1 team in the nation, a team that beat Ohio State earlier in the season and is seen as a much better team than Penn State, who lost to Ohio State this season, would shut every Nittany Lions critic of right up. Not to mention the fact that it would guarantee PSU a top-four spot in the College Football Playoff.

For Franklin, beating Oregon in the Big Ten Championship could be a career-saving move. Many fans and viewers, including myself, are skeptical of Franklin due to his inability to beat the best of the best year in and year out, but winning the Big Ten Championship would stop all this criticism.

To put it simply, Penn State was gifted a spot in the Big Ten Championship thanks to its ease of schedule and the incompetence of the Buckeyes, and the Nittany Lions have a chance to prove the entire college football world wrong with their matchup against Oregon.

The only question is, can this Penn State team shock the world, or will this team prove to be what everyone thinks it is: a fake?