Bracketology 2023: Complete Bubble Watch before final weekend of regular season

Penn State: 18-12 (9-10 in Big Ten) NET: 57

There’s a crop of teams in a cluster near the top of the Big Ten and Penn State is not one of those teams. Their NET is pretty weak and they’re going to face an uphill battle in the conference tournament. However, they’ve swept Illinois, blew out Indiana, and have a considerable amount of decent road wins in recent weeks, getting the Nittany Lions back into the picture.

The resume includes 4 Quad 1 wins, including very recent road wins at Ohio State and Northwestern, but is it enough? The Nittany Lions have a slew of avoidable losses and close games that they’d no doubt want to rewrite. They can’t undo close losses but can be undone by their performances earlier in the year, losing at Nebraska and getting swept by Rutgers. However, they’ve now won four out of five games and are redeeming themselves at the right time of year.

Another Quad 1 opportunity comes this Sunday with a home date against Maryland. Penn State puts itself in much better position if it can finish the regular season with a bang. Right now, they are firmly on the bubble, as Joe Lundari has them as the final team in the field. They can still get into the Big Dance with a loss against the Terrapins, but they’d then need to show up in a major way at the Big Ten Tournament. Maybe they’ll pray for a third matchup with an Illinois team they’ve solved twice this season.