David Jones of the Harrisburg Patriot-News writes that Penn State could be passed over in favor Ohio State and Iowa, two Big Ten teams who lost to Penn State and have worse records. Penn State's probable destination, then, is the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Houston.
The linchpin is the Insight Bowl in Phoenix which is expected to take Iowa (7-5, 4-4 Big Ten) or Ohio State (6-6, 3-5), probably the former. It is then anticipated that the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville will take the team of that pair that remains, probably OSU.
And then Penn State (9-3, 6-2), which played for a shot at the Big Ten championship in the season's final game and defeated both OSU and Iowa, is expected to be snapped up by the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas in Houston. That game will be played on Dec. 31 at noon EST in Reliant Stadium.
That would be quite a tumble for Penn State, but it looks like the regular news surrounding the Jerry Sandusky scandal has hurt the Nittany Lions. Jones admits he isn't quite sure what will happen, in part because none of the decision-makers want to say anything about the scandal, but it's no surprise that it seems to be having an effect.
If the Nittany Lions do in fact end up in the Meineke Car Care Bowl, Texas A&M would be their likely opponent.