Penn State Football: The benefits of making a NY6 Bowl game

Penn State football may be on its way to its fourth New Year’s Six Bowl game appearance under James Franklin

After the clock struck triple zero’s Saturday afternoon, a drenched Penn State football team had completed its first shutout of the year, completely dominating the Terrapins of Maryland 30-0.

A thoroughly dominating first half saw Penn State catapult to a 27-0 lead and then coast in the soggy second half while starting to liberally insert the second and even third strings in the contest.

While no team in the Big Ten should ever be overlooked, looking at the remaining schedule shows that Penn State’s next two games against Rutgers and Michigan State are winnable. What awaits after that is slowly starting to come into focus after a couple of turbulent weeks. A New Year’s 6 Bowl, if not the “Grand-daddy of the All” Rose Bowl, are now almost a certainty.

Reading the “interesting” Penn State football fan pages got me to thinking what a bowl of that caliber means to the team and program. From a team that started the season unranked to one that had a halftime lead the No. 3 team in the country and a lead LATE in the 4th quarter against No. 2, a 10-2 season sounds incredibly successful.

While all of us dream of a national championship every year, as I learned through life, if realistic expectations aren’t set, failure becomes the only other possibility unless you win it all.

Here are some of the benefits of a NY6 bowl and why it becomes a pitstop on the way to a potential National Championship for Penn State football.