Around this time last year, the College Football Playoff announced an expansion from four to 12 teams. Penn State, which came agonizingly close to cracking the old format on several occasions, was believed to be one of the programs that would benefit the most.

The Nittany Lions solidified their playoff hopes with a 44-7 win over Maryland at Beaver Stadium, but it didn’t just do that. In a turn of unusual events, James Franklin’s team is heading to Indianapolis, Indiana, to face Oregon in the Big Ten Championship next week.

College football was full of twists and turns in the 2024 season, more so than usual. Powerhouse programs across the nation were vulnerable to upsets that damaged or derailed playoff bids. Among the victims were Alabama and Ole Miss, two teams on the outside looking in after suffering three losses, with at least one being against unranked opponents.

Ohio State, heavily favored over Michigan, lost to the Wolverines at home to send Penn State to Indianapolis. The Buckeyes will make the playoffs, but their path to glory is suddenly much tougher.

Despite all the chaos this season brought to many of college football’s powerhouses, Penn State stayed the course and avoided any upsets. The Nittany Lions are one of six Power Four teams with less than two losses, pending the outcome of multiple games tonight.

However, many would’ve thought Penn State would fall victim at least once given Franklin’s history of occasionally losing against teams he should’ve beat. In fact, his team had close calls this season against Bowling Green, USC, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. However, it found ways to survive all four of those games.

“If you study college football, it’s hard to win consistently,” he said. “And the fact that our guys were able to find a way to win 11 times this season during the regular season, I’m proud of them.”

Franklin preaches going “1-0” every game, a phrase meant to emphasize focusing on the task at hand and nothing else. He and several players have emphasized focusing on what they can control throughout the season, and not paying attention to the outside world.

Franklin has said on multiple occasions that the Nittany Lions don’t discuss rankings. Smith Vilbert said two weeks ago that he doesn’t often use his phone. When asked about a then-projected playoff game against Georgia, former Bulldog AJ Harris was surprised to hear it was a possibility.

Penn State’s emphasis on focusing on what it can control is a significant reason for being 11-1. Franklin knew before the game Michigan had toppled Ohio State, but he didn’t say anything to the team, even though he suspected several players knew, to keep them focused on Maryland.

“I didn’t say anything to the team,” Franklin said. “Actually, I did the opposite. I said, ‘Maryland, Maryland, Maryland, Maryland, Maryland, Maryland, Maryland, Maryland, Maryland,’ because I think a lot of people were aware of it, and I was trying to keep us focused, and maybe that’s why the game started out the way the game started. But you got to control the things that you can control, and the things outside of Beaver Stadium are not in our control.”

Penn State has been prone to slow starts this season, and today wasn’t an exception. Nick Singleton fumbled on the first play, and the Terrapins scored a touchdown on their first drive. Their lead wasn’t erased until the second quarter.

Despite trailing early, the Nittany Lions found a way to pull out a win like they had 10 other times this season. They ultimately settled down, locked in, and won convincingly to secure a spot in the Big Ten Championship, just as the coaching staff emphasized repeatedly.

“The [coaching staff] stresses it an incredible amount,” defensive lineman Dvon J-Thomas echoed. “In this wild, wild west that we call the playoff system for college football, it’s more important now than ever to control the controllable and to keep a level head and not to get too high or too low on whatever’s going on around college football, because things can change in an instant and things can change in a day, things are changing in an afternoon.

“We went from not being in the Big Ten Championship to now, we’re in the Big Ten Championship, in an afternoon. Things can change right now, so you just have to keep a level head and focus on where your feet are.”