On Monday, the Action Network’s Brett McMurphy released his final bowl predictions for the 2024 college football season.
His first edition of postseason picks comes with Week 0 set to begin on Saturday, so take these projections as just that—projections.
McMurphy has Penn State making the College Football Playoff as the No. 9 seed and one of four Big Ten teams to make the playoff. As has been predicted before, the Nittany Lions would not host their first-round matchup and instead travel to Baton Rouge to take on the LSU Tigers. Penn State’s run doesn’t stop there, as McMurphy has the Nittany Lions beating the Tigers and moving on to face the number one overall-seeded Oregon Ducks in the Rose Bowl. The last time Penn State was in the Rose Bowl was in 2023 when the Nittany Lions beat the Utah Utes 35-21 behind a massive performance from Nicholas Singleton.
That would be the end of Penn State’s hypothetical postseason run. Oregon eliminates the Nittany Lions in the quarterfinals and knocks out the Ohio State Buckeyes in the semifinals before facing Georgia in the championship game.
Depending on how the game against Oregon went, many Penn State fans would probably consider a trip to the College Football Playoff quarterfinals a successful season. A loss to No. 1 Oregon would sting, but it wouldn’t be a step backward type of defeat.
My @ActionNetworkHQ preseason bowl projections. @CFBPlayoff: Oregon, Alabama, Miami, Utah, Ohio State, Georgia, Ole Miss, LSU, Penn State, Virginia Tech, Iowa, Texas State. Also, Citrus: Nebraska-Texas; ReliaQuest: Michigan-Mizzou; Gator: FSU-Auburnhttps://t.co/w78knct5nX
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) August 19, 2024