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ATLANTA -- It's been a busy week for Penn State and Mississippi heading into Saturday's Peach Bowl.
The teams have toured the Atlanta Aquarium, Martin Luther King Museum and College Football Hall of Fame, ridden go-karts and squared off in a Peach Bowl version of "Family Feud."
Part of the bowl's mission is tied to philanthropy and education.
"Going to the Martin Luther King Museum was very powerful," Penn State coach James Franklin said, adding the bowl listed the event as optional for the teams but Penn State did not consider it optional.
"I know it was great for me personally," Franklin said. "As much as I feel like I knew a ton about Martin Luther King and the background and the significance for our country and race relations, I learned a ton myself at 51 years old that I didn't know. We've been fortunate on a lot of these different types of trips to be able to gain some perspective."
The Peach Bowl, sponsored by Chick-Fil-A, prides itself on "being more than just a bowl game," bowl president Gary Stokan said.
Stokan, a Pittsburgh native, said the game was founded for charity, scholarships and contributing to the underprivileged community. Since its inception in 1968, the bowl has donated more than $62 million, which is more than every other of the 44 bowls, including $5.7 million this year.
The Peach Bowl had a role in bringing the College Football Hall of Fame to Atlanta, and Stokan said an organizational goal is "to make Atlanta the capital of college football."
The city will host the College Football Playoff championship game next year.
As for this year's iteration of the Peach Bowl, the teams are similar. Both finished 10-2. Penn State is ranked No. 10 by the Associated Press, and Ole Miss is No. 11.
Each lost to the most accomplished teams on their schedule, the Nittany Lions falling to No. 1 Michigan (24-15) and No. 7 Ohio State (20-12) and the Rebels losing to No. 5 Alabama (52-17) and No. 6 Georgia (24-10).
"There's probably some similarities with two losses to two of the elite teams in college football," Mississippi coach Lane Kiffin said.
The glass should be half-full, not half-empty, Franklin said.
"It is challenging," he said of climbing the mountain to dethrone Ohio State and Michigan. "But I also think there's that fine line, which is winning 10 games, winning 11 games in a conference like the Big Ten or in the SEC is more challenging on a consistent basis than I think people realize."
The teams have never met before, and Penn State has a chance to become the first school to win all six New Year's Six Bowls (Rose, Orange, Cotton, Sugar, Fiesta, Peach).
Penn State beat Utah in last year's Rose Bowl and used the game as a springboard into this season. Franklin is hopeful for a similar result today.
"I felt like the momentum was a real positive for our program, whether it was recruiting, whether it was transfer portal, whether it was just a general feeling and excitement with our fans, with the media, with our players in the locker room," he said. "I think in some ways obviously a bowl game is the ending of the previous season, but in a lot of ways, you can also look at it as the start of the next year."
Kickoff at the 71,000-seat Mercedes-Benz Stadium is at noon, and the game is a sellout. ESPN will televise.