Can Penn State still play in the Big Ten championship game?

With two weeks remaining in the regular season, there’s still a chance Penn State could play for the Big Ten championship. But in addition to taking care of its remaining schedule, Penn State will need help from across the conference in order to book a trip to Indianapolis to play for the first Big Ten championship in the conference’s 18-team era.

At 6-1 in Big Tne play, Penn State sits in fourth place in the Big Ten standings after the Week 12 result. Oregon essentially clinched its spot in the Big Ten championship game with a defensive win at Wisconsin on Saturday night. There’s a weird tiebreaker that could end up biting Oregon, but that’s considered highly unlikely at this point. That leaves a spot up for grabs between three teams, including Penn State.

And the situation for the Big Ten championship game will be clearer in Week 13 when the other two teams competing for a spot in Indy, Ohio State and Indiana, face off in the game of the week. Indiana is undefeated this season and Ohio State has only one loss (against Oregon). Indiana has a one-game lead over Penn State in the standings and Ohio State has the advantage over the Nittany Lions due to a head to head victory a few weeks ago.

The winner of next weekend’s Ohio State-Indiana will have the inside track to Indianapolis heading into the final week of the regular season. Indiana will be 11-0 and 8-0 in Big Ten play heading into its final regular season game against Purdue 1-9, or Ohio State will enter its final regular season game at home against Michigan already possessing the head. – tiebreaker against Penn State and Indiana.

What are the tiebreakers?

The Big Ten released its tiebreakers for the conference championship games before the start of the season. They are essentially the same as previous years for division championship tiebreakers.

Here is the exact wording of the tiebreaker procedure for the Big Ten with more than two tied teams this season (this procedure is repeated until the number of tied teams is reduced to two);

1. The records of the three tied teams (or more) will be compared based on the winning percentage in matches between the tied teams.
   (a) If all teams involved in the tie did not play each other, but one team beat all other teams involved in the tie, the team that beat all other teams in the tie is removed from the tiebreaker and the remaining teams return to the start of the applicable tiebreaker process (i.e. tie between two teams or three or more teams).
   (b) If all teams involved in the tie have not played each other and no team has beaten all other teams involved in the tie, proceed to the next step of the tiebreaker.

2. The records of the three (or more) tied teams will be compared based on the winning percentage against all common conference opponents faced by all other teams involved in the tie.

3. The records of the three (or more) tied teams will be compared based on winning percentage against the next highest ranked common opponent, in order of finish:

4. The records of the three (or more) tied teams will be compared based on the best cumulative conference winning percentage of all conference opponents:
   (a) In the case of an unbalanced schedule (i.e. fewer than nine conference games played), the records of the three (or more) tied teams will be compared based on best cumulative winning percentage of all conference opponents, regardless of how many conference opponents each team has faced. If the winning percentage is equal for all conference opponents, proceed to the next stage of the tiebreaker.

5. The representative will be chosen by the highest ranking by SportSource Analytics (team evaluation score metric) after the regular season.

6. Draw among tied teams carried out by the commissioner or his representative.

How does Penn State get into the Big Ten championship game?

The easiest way for Penn State to reach Indy is to win its final two games, with Ohio State handing Indiana a loss, and then Ohio State and Indiana each losing their respective regular season finales for two defeats.

So what will it take for Penn State to get past the Buckeyes and Hoosiers, and are there any tiebreakers that could break Penn State’s path?

First of all, Penn State can’t take another loss. Penn State needs to win its final two games at Minnesota and at home against Maryland to remain a one-loss team.

Ohio State might be the favorite at this point to make it to Indy. The Buckeyes will likely be favored at home against Indiana and against Michigan the following weekend. If Ohio State beats Indiana, the Buckeyes will be in a good position against the Wolverines. A second Ohio State loss could take Ohio State out of the mix altogether, as catching Indiana will be impossible and Penn State might only have one loss on its record.

Indiana is in a tough spot if it loses to Ohio State this weekend. Indiana would likely need Penn State and Ohio State to lose the final weekend of the season in order to make the short trip to Indianapolis.

If Penn State can handle its own business starting next week at Minnesota, then Nittany Lions fans will be in the awkward position of having to support Ohio State (vs. Indiana) and then Michigan (vs. Ohio State ) in order to see Penn State in a tiebreaker with the Hoosiers.

The fourth tiebreaker is one that would likely help Penn State against Indiana if it were those two schools.

That’s far from the case for Penn State, of course. But there is still a path to the Big Ten championship game. Just cheer for the Buckeyes next week and you’ll never have to cheer for them again.

Penn State will know where things stand before its next game. Ohio State and Indiana will tip off their game next week at noon Eastern Time. Penn State will travel to Minnesota at 3:30 p.m. Eastern.

Follow Kevin McGuire on Topics, Instagram, TikTokAnd Facebook.

Follow Nittany Lions Wire on X, FacebookAnd Topics.

The story was originally published on Nittany Lions Wire