Lions stage huge rally to claim the Big Ten title

“We had a great game plan in, and in the first half we showed that we were making plays”.

Ohio State, a Big Ten team, did not even reach its conference championship game, in which Penn State rallied to beat Wisconsin, 38-31, Saturday night.

Even if Penn State comes up short in this contest, there would be no shame in losing to Wisconsin.

The Nittany Lions saw Washington – along with its 128th-ranked out of conference schedule – grab the fourth seed. Add in two more wins over AP top-25 teams Iowa and Temple and the fact that both losses came against top-25 teams in MI and Pittsburgh, and that’s a compelling case. The Huskies addressed that concern Saturday with a lopsided win over top 10 opponent Colorado.

The Badgers fell to 10-3 with the loss and it’ll take them a little while to put this one in the rearview mirror.

The one interesting revelation in the final ranking is the placement of Penn State at No. 5. Saeed Blacknall caught six passes, two for touchdowns, and finished with a championship-game record 155 yards.

There’s just one problem with that scenario. There were no massive injuries to another top team nor anything like disqualifications.

Streamers and confetti rained down from the sky at Lucas Oil Stadium, as the Penn State players sprinted onto the field in celebration. Big Ten champion Penn State and MI were left out, with Alabama, Clemson and Washington claiming the other three spots.

Ohio State does have a good resume as defined by the committee. MI is likely better as well.

But the Ohio State-Michigan-Penn State race feels like those years when the Nittany Lions first arrived in the conference in 1993. They should still wind up in a New Year’s Day bowl game thanks to a schedule that included six games against top 10 teams and no losses to a team ranked lower than No. 8. Doesn’t mean that the Huskers were a better team than the Spartans or more deserving of a playoff berth.

Clement said the Penn State stop on fourth down summed up the game. The Buckeyes, meanwhile, are the first team in the three-year history of the playoff to make the field without winning its conference.

And then there’s MI, which seemed to be held to a standard Ohio State was not. Ohio State didn’t win the Big Ten East because the Buckeyes lost to the Nittany Lions and were regulated to watching the weekend’s developments unfold. Maybe that is true, but it is unlikely to happen and frankly, Ohio State is better and more deserving. Michigan State and Iowa carried the banner in Indianapolis last season.

Washington: QB Jake Browning, 3,280 passing yards, 42 touchdowns, seven interceptions. Due to Alabama’s location and their status as the number one team, they will be playing in Atlanta once again in the Chick Fil A Peach Bowl.

Ohio State had been considered a lock for the College Football Playoff ever since it beat MI – then ranked No. 3 – in double overtime on November 26.

– Which teams will play in the Cotton Bowl? A team that, like Penn State, hasn’t lost since September and has been coming into its own.

The Big Ten champ Nittany Lions finished just outside of the College Football Playoff, and as such are headed to Pasadena. And here’s how they did the Impossible.