EAST LANSING, Mich. -- The Big Ten season is over and it's a long, long wait until Bowl Championship Series bids get doled out Dec. 6.
The wait may be particularly stressful for No. 12 Penn State.
The Nittany Lions (10-2, 6-2) closed out the regular season Saturday with a convincing 42-14 win at Michigan State. But now they risk falling off the football radar while teams from the SEC, Big 12, Big East and other conferences continue impressing bowl scouts.
The Big Ten wraps up its regular season early and the 11-member conference doesn't have a championship game, which could end up hurting its teams.
"I suppose I could jump off the roof of my house," Penn State coach Joe Paterno said, when asked how the Nittany Lions could remain in the national limelight over the next few weeks.
"You really can't do anything until they change the scheduling format of the Big Ten -- go to 12 teams and have a playoff."
No more than two teams from any one conference can be picked for the BCS and Ohio State has locked up the Big Ten's automatic bid. It's not certain the conference will get a second bid, but if it does, could Penn State possibly be picked over Iowa? The Hawkeyes won in Happy Valley and finished with an identical 10-2 record.
"I don't know," said Penn State quarterback Darryl Clark, who did his part to impress the bowl scouts by throwing for 310 yards and four TDs Saturday. "We'll see."
Clark and Co. will maintain that Penn State doesn't have a bad loss -- its other defeat came against Big Ten champion Ohio State -- and bounced back strong after each setback.
"Our coaches did a good job of making sure we didn't fall into the tank," Clark said.
The Nittany Lions certainly bounced back Saturday. Tied with Michigan State 7-7 at halftime, Penn State scored 28 points in the third quarter.
Clark set Penn State records for touchdown passes in a season (23) and career (42) Saturday. He also set a new single season record with 2,787 yards passing.
The Nittany Lions wound up with 512 yards of total offense, including 114 yards rushing from Evan Royster. The Penn State defense, as usual, was dominating -- hassling Michigan State quarterback Kirk Cousins even when it rushed just four linemen.
Michigan State's faults were exposed, particularly on defense. The Spartans have the most trouble when they blitz and don't get to the opposing quarterback, leaving their secondary vulnerable to big plays.
The Spartans (6-6, 4-4) won nine games last season and were picked to finish third in this season's Big Ten preseason media poll. Their record is a disappointment but the Spartans get a chance at some measure of redemption with a bowl appearance -- maybe the Alamo Bowl or Insight Bowl, depending on what happens with other selections.
The Spartans will be making a bowl appearance for the third straight season.
"The thing about football is you get a chance to get back up after you have been knocked down, and we will do that," Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio said.