College football fans shocked by Penn State sneaking into Big Ten Championship Game

Heading into Saturday, it was a virtual certainty that Ohio State would get a chance to avenge its only loss of the season against Oregon in the Big Ten Championship Game next week. The Buckeyes entered “The Game” as more than three-touchdown favorites over Michigan, needing to simply win for a spot in Indianapolis. Then, as has been the case all year in college football, the unexpected happened. 

Michigan shocked Ohio State 13-10 in Columbus, beating Ryan Day’s team for the fourth consecutive year and opening the door for Penn State to take its place in Indy. The game went final just before Penn State kicked off its regular season finale against Maryland at Beaver Stadium. With a win-and-in scenario for the Nittany Lions, they pounded the Terrapins 44-7 to finish the season 11-1 and 8-1 in Big Ten play. 

Courtesy of a tiebreaker with 11-1 (8-1) Indiana, Penn State will play the 12-0 (9-0) Ducks for the conference crown next Saturday. The entire day shocked the college football world. 

The Nittany Lions have struggled to get over the hump against the Buckeyes under James Franklin, but luckily for as much as Franklin has been tormented by Ohio State, Ryan Day has been even more tortured by the Wolverines. However, this was supposed to be the year that Day, who is now 1-4 against his team’s biggest rival, would take care of business as a massive home favorite. 

Since Penn State’s loss to Ohio State back in Week 10, the path to the Big Ten title game seemed nearly impossible, but now Franklin has a chance to win his second conference championship since taking over in 2014 and the program’s fifth. Penn State’s first-ever Big Ten crown came in 1994, just one season after joining the conference, and the Nittany Lions last won it in 2016, also the last season they beat Ohio State. 

Jason Cabinda was one of the leaders of that 2016 team that beat Wisconsin in Indianapolis. This will be a bit of a tougher test, taking on the No. 1 team in the country.