10/18/2021 football Edit

Penn State football bowl projections: Where it's slotted ahead of Week 8

Greg Pickel • Happy Valley Insider

Staff

Penn State is ready for the second half of the 2021 college football season.

The Nittany Lions are 5-1 and coming off a bye week ahead of Saturday's Noon clash with Illinois at Beaver Stadium.

Where head coach James Franklin's team plays in the postseason largely depends on how healthy quarterback Sean Clifford is for the final six games of the year, which features matchups with multiple top-15 teams and Big Ten East contenders.

We won't know much about that until the weekend, however, but for now, we can look at the expert projections for Penn State's postseason hopes ahead of Week 8.

Penn State coach James Franklin has his team ready for the second half of the season. AP photo

Expert bowl projections

Stewart Mandel of The Athletic: Rose Bowl vs. Utah

Jerry Palm of CBS Sports: Peach Bowl vs. North Carolina State

College Football News Staff: Citrus Bowl vs. Ole Miss

Kyle Bonagua of ESPN: Outback Bowl vs. Florida

Mark Schlabach of ESPN: Citrus Bowl vs. Ole Miss

Action Network: Rose Bowl vs. Oregon

Saturday Tradition: Citrus Bowl vs. Texas A&M

Blue-White Illustrated's take

It goes without saying that Penn State will either end up in a New Year's Six bowl or a lesser bowl game in Florida based on how matchups opposite Michigan and at Ohio State and Michigan State play out.

At this point, as long as Clifford is healthy and starting against the Buckeyes before closing out the entire November slate of games on the field, it feels like a safe bet that the Rose or Peach bowls are Penn State's floor in terms of which postseason game it will end up in. Without a playing Clifford, however, more losses are coming, and that would send the Lions to the Citrus or Outback contests.