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Not unless Nittany Lions can beat OSU, Michigan
By Neil Rudel
nrudel@altoonamirror.com
OK, first off, to explain the wording of the question: James Franklin started it.
Quick background: Following a gut-wrenching 27-26 loss to the Buckeyes in 2018 at Beaver Stadium -- Ohio State's second-straight one-point win (39-38) in the series -- Franklin used his post-game forum to outline the difference between great and elite programs.
He said the Lions "are a great program" and pledged to narrow that gap to become "elite."
In the emotional, raw moments of a tough loss -- another come-from-ahead-loss vs. OSU -- it definitely wasn't the time to do it, and Franklin has yet to recover from it.
In the 51 games since that Saturday night, before a White Out crowd by the way, Penn State is 33-18.
It lost to Michigan State the very next week and Michigan 42-7 later that season.
It is 0-3 vs. the Buckeyes and a 15-point underdog this week.
And the Nits are 0-7 against Top-10 ranked teams since that night.
So to today's question: It won't.
Penn State entered the Big Ten in 1993 eager to be measured against Ohio State and Michigan, and that has not changed. Nor should it.
The expanded playoff likely will allow 10-2 teams into the 12-team field, if and when that begins, but if those two losses are to Ohio State and Michigan - especially if Franklin doesn't want to play a high-profile intersectional game - it will merely be window dressing.
A two-loss team probably will face a road game in the first round of the playoffs, and a win there and potentially then in the quarterfinals would be encouraging if the Lions could get to the national semifinals, but that's where they'll run into an elite program - Alabama, Georgia and, yes, Ohio State or Michigan.
While I favor a playoff, I also have questions about how it will be received and whether the players will actually buy into the idea that they're being asked to play as many as four more games.
Keep in mind many of these players have been bailing on bowl games these last few years - and not even the first-round picks. Penn State had seven players opt out of the Outback Bowl last year, and two of them weren't even drafted.
So good luck with the playoff model to a group of players who already think they should be paid and some are through NIL.
The playoff will draw big ratings and extend meaningful games into December, but there's no masking that until Penn State starts beating the upper echelon of the Big Ten -- and more than once every eight years on a blocked field goal -- it won't be elite.
Meanwhile, Franklin and the Nittany Lions get another chance to surprise everybody this weekend and tackle the E word.
Rudel can be reached at 914-946-7527 or nrudel@altoonamirror.com.
A technicality, but elite criteria will change
By Cory Giger
sports@altoonamirror.com
Let's talk some college basketball for a moment, and my favorite sporting event, the NCAA Tournament.
Coaches and teams in that sport are judged on how many times they go dancing, and how often they're able to make a nice little run in the tourney.
Teams don't have to get to the Final Four all the time to be considered elite. Getting to the Sweet 16 most years and then an occasional run to the Elite Eight or Final Four is enough to make a program elite.
Once college football goes to a 12-team playoff in a couple of years, I believe the same kind of thing will happen with how we determine which programs are elite.
Right now, the elite programs are the ones that compete for and/or earn College Football Playoff berths on a routine basis. There are basically only five elite programs in all of college football: Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Clemson and Oklahoma.
That's it. That's the list. Everybody else has to settle for being in the next tier.
So, if you connect the dots with me, once the playoff field expands to 12, the teams that are perennially in that group ultimately will, by default, become the elite programs in the country.
It won't happen overnight, and probably not in the first five years or so. But in about a decade, if Penn State is able to make a 12-team playoff field let's say, oh, six times, my contention is that the Nittany Lions will be considered an elite program.
It's all about shifting definitions and barometers of what it means to be elite.
Now, to be clear, using my college basketball comparison, Penn State is going to need to make a nice run in the playoff every now and then to solidify itself as an elite program. The Lions can't get into the playoff and lose in the first round every year.
But let's say they earn a playoff berth six times in a decade, and on two occasions they win two postseason games but get no further. Wouldn't that make Penn State elite, given that the team would basically be in the top 4-6 at least every few years?
Hey, maybe you disagree, and argue that the Lions would need to advance far every year in order to cross the elite threshold. But I don't see it that way, because in my view, making the Final Four a couple of times per decade with numerous other playoff berths would be enough.
Penn State would have made a 12-team field four straight years from 2016-19, so had the rules been different then, maybe the program already would have reached the elusive elite status.
As it stands, under current criteria, the Lions aren't close to being elite. But lots of things about college football will change once the playoff field expands to 12, including the way we categorize the tiers of teams.
Cory Giger covers Penn State for DK Pittsburgh Sports and hosts "Sports Central" weekdays from 4-5 on WRTA. He can be reached at cgsports12@gmail.com.