Penn State Scandal: Should the Nittany Lions Sit out the Postseason?

Penn State’s bowl situation has been a highly talked-about topic lately in the wake of the sex-abuse scandal that struck the school last week.

There have been some who have said that the school should self-impose a sanction on itself and sit out postseason play in order to stop the inevitably awkward situation of being passed up by different Big Ten-affiliated bowl games.

The general feeling is that no bowl out there wants to invite Penn State, since inviting the Nittany Lions means that they’ll also be inviting all the controversy and negative media attention that’s associated with the school right now.

That would be an unfair punishment to the Penn State players, who all had nothing to do with any of this, but that’s just the reality of the situation.

What would be the really interesting development is if Penn State ended up winning the Big Ten championship and earning the team’s automatic BCS bowl bid.  

Rose Bowl officials have already said that they would welcome the team if it earned its way to Pasadena.

The Rose Bowl annually tries to pit the Pac-12 champion versus the Big Ten champion for its matchup.

As it stands right now, Penn State still has a great shot to make it to the Big Ten’s first-ever conference championship game. The Nittany Lions currently sit atop the Big Ten Leaders division with a 5-1 conference record and if they can survive their final two road tests against Ohio State and Wisconsin, they’ll be on their way to Indianapolis.

The Rose Bowl has to put on a good face here, because it can’t technically pass over Penn State if it's eligible, but if the Nittany Lions don’t win the Big Ten, then things will get interesting.

The Big Ten has seven tie-ins with non-BCS bowls—the Capital One Bowl, the Outback Bowl, the Insight Bowl, the Gator Bowl, the Meineke Car Care Bowl, the TickeyCity Bowl and the Little Caesar’s Pizza Bowl.

There's a pecking order that the bowls are supposed to use to select their participants, but we’ve seen certain bowls bypass teams in the past for a variety of reasons.

There are going to be a lot of desirable eligible Big Ten teams this year such as Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, Ohio State and Wisconsin.

Every bowl would probably much rather have one of those big-name schools—even Ohio State, which has also dealt with a major scandal this year—than to invite Penn State.

That leaves the school facing a tough decision.

If the Nittany Lions don’t win the Big Ten and don’t make it to the Rose Bowl, should school officials simply make the decision to sit out the postseason?

It could save the school from further embarrassment, but it would also take away a postseason game from the departing seniors.

No matter how it all plays out, it will certainly be interesting to see how the bowls and Penn State ultimately handle the situation.

I say if Penn State doesn’t make it to the Rose Bowl, then it would be in its best interests to just stay home and avoid the embarrassment of getting passed over for lesser teams and ending up in the TicketCity or Little Caesar’s Pizza Bowl.

Yes, that wouldn’t be fair to the players, but tell that to all the USC players who will miss out on two straight bowl games because of Reggie Bush.

Tom Bradley has already said that he’s been told that the team will not turn down a bowl bid, but remember, school officials said that knowing that the team is still in the running to make it to the Rose Bowl.

If Penn State misses out on Pasadena, the school could rethink its postseason plans.

Sure, the TicketCity Bowl and Little Caesar’s Pizza Bowl probably wouldn't care about the controversy, just as long as they can land a big-name school with a large fanbase, but the question is: Is it even really worth it for Penn State to take another PR hit?

It might just be better to sit this one out and work on rebuilding the foundation of the program for the future.