Blue White Illustrated

handed Michigan State a sobering 30-6 loss at home on Sept. 24, holding the Spartans to 75 rushing yards and inter- cepting senior quarterback Tyler O'Con- nor three times. And then the bottom fell out. Michigan State fell to Indiana for the first time since 2006, dropped its final nonconference game at home to BYU, lost a shootout against Northwestern and came up short against Maryland, Michigan and Illinois. Two weeks ago, the Spartans ended that skid decisively with a 49-0 victory over Rutgers, and they gave second- ranked Ohio State all it could handle last weekend in a 17-16 loss in East Lansing. But at 3-8 overall and 1-7 in the Big Ten, their surge has occurred too late to sal- vage a bowl trip or to prevent this from being the losingest of Mark Dantonio's 10 seasons as the team's head coach. The big question now is whether it occurred in time to prevent Penn State from com- pleting its improbable transformation from unranked aBerthought to nation- ally relevant title contender. "Last year we were ranked No. 5 in the country when we went into this football game and were playing for a Big Ten championship," Dantonio said earlier this week. "This year the situation has been reversed a little bit. Penn State is playing very well. They're a 9-2 football team playing for an opportunity to be part of a championship, a Big Ten cham- pionship, East Division. They should be congratulated for that. Our goals are to finish much like we've always tried to do, complete a circle, finish with a 'W'. " The Nittany Lions are looking at a number of postseason scenarios, but a lot will depend on what happens about 330 miles to the west. If Michigan beats Ohio State in Colum- bus on Saturday, the Penn State-Michi- gan State game will have no bearing on the league championship. The Wolver- ines will represent the East Division in the title game, while the Lions will sim- ply be looking to get their 10th win and enhance their bowl resume. With a win over Michigan State, they could be headed for a berth in either the Cotton or Orange. However, if the Buckeyes defeat the Wolverines, Penn State will be playing for a spot in Indy. The Lions own the tiebreaker against Ohio State should both finish at 8-1 in the Big Ten, so a vic- tory over the Spartans in the regular- season finale would set up a date with either Wisconsin or Nebraska. A win there would open up some even more en- ticing possibilities, although the College Football Playoff appears to be out of reach, with Ohio State seen as the Big Ten's most likely representative should Penn State claim the league title. The Ohio State-Michigan game is set for noon, so the Lions may know by the time their game against Michigan State kicks off whether they're still in con- tention for a berth in the championship. Even if the outcome of the earlier game is in doubt at 3:30, coach James Franklin said it would be futile to try to prevent players from finding out about the result. "That information will be out there, N O V E M B E R 2 3 , 2 0 1 6 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 2

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