College bowl picks: What you need to know ahead of Sunday’s announcement – PennLive.com

For the first time, Selection Sunday will be held in December.

The inaugural College Football Playoff participants will be announced Sunday at 12:30 p.m. on ESPN. The four participants that will make up the semifinal round, plus the game locations, will be announced during the show. It can also be seen on WatchESPN.

Then, at 2:45 p.m., the College Football Playoff committee’s top 25 will be released, as will the other ‘New Year’s Six’ matchups, which includes the Cotton, Fiesta, Peach, and Orange bowls.

Penn State (6-6) will not be involved in any of those tilts. There is no set time for the rest of the bowl pairings to be released, though an early evening announcement from either the bowl that selects Penn State, the university, or both can be expected.

Of course, depending on the outcome of Saturday’s Big Ten championship game, one Big Ten team could miss a bowl game despite being eligible. It’s highly unlikely that the Lions are the team left out for a litany of reasons, though, namely the money and fan draw associated with the program. 

As of late Saturday, many pundits were still predicting Penn State to end up in the Pinstripe Bowl, which is slated for Dec. 27 at Yankee Stadium. The game features a team from the Big Ten opposite a program from the ACC. Experts have project either Boston College or Duke as the most likely opponent should the Lions be selected to head to New York for the holidays, but the Foster Farms Bowl in San Francisco, the Heart of Dallas Bowl in Texas, and the Quick Lanes Bowl in Detroit are all still in play.

Penn State began preparing for its likely postseason date Saturday, when it took the field for the first of 15 bowl practices allowed by the NCAA.

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