Finally, the Peach Bowl: Why Penn State football will play Ole Miss in the New Year's Six

Penn State football will play in the Peach Bowl, giving it an opportunity to do what no other team has:

Win each of the six major postseason games.

The Nittany Lions were awarded their first-ever bid to the Peach on Sunday — the team's fifth prestigious New Year's Six bowl game in the past eight years. The team had never played in the game that's been around for 55 years.

Penn State, ranked 10th in the major polls at 10-2, will now play the SEC's Mississippi Rebels on Dec. 30 in Atlanta. Kickoff is at noon in the NFL's opulent Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

The Lions already own victories in the Rose, Orange, Fiesta, Cotton and Sugar bowls.

"Pretty cool that Penn State has never played in the Peach Bowl, which is something that's unusual in 2023," Franklin said during a Sunday bowl announcement press conference. "There's not too many things you can say that's never happened, especially for a program like Penn State."

The Lions will play Ole Miss for the first time in program history. The two-loss Rebels (No. 11) got into the New Year's Six as an at-large team in a Sunday-selection twist. There suddenly was room for them after Florida State missed the four-team playoff, which bumped Louisville out of the big bowl picture altogether.

For Penn State, this game against an SEC opponent will provide a springboard into a 2024 season featuring a re-structured Big Ten Conference with the additions of USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington and the elimination of divisions. The changes coincide with the expansion of the College Football Playoffs from four to 12 teams.

The Peach will feature Penn State's top returning talent for next season, from quarterbacks Drew Allar and Beau Pribula to running backs Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen. As well as several holdovers from the nation's top-ranked defense, including rush-end Dani Dennis-Sutton, linebacker Abdul Carter and safety KJ Winston Jr.

It's a pretty good prize, in the end, for finishing third in the final year of the rugged Big Ten East.

Kiffin and Franklin said neither owned much of any scouting knowledge yet on their upcoming opponent.

Franklin offered that he's at least familiar with Ole Miss star sophomore tailback Quinshon Judkins, a back-to-back 1,000-yard rusher, because Penn State recruited him while in high school in Alabama.

"I got an early report from my personnel people that (Penn State has) phenomenal players, great starters on defense. I was hoping Coach Franklin was going to announce they're opting out. That would help us with that too," Kiffin said, tongue-in-cheek. "So that's all I know."

Of course, player opt-outs could potentially be a significant factor in the Peach Bowl. Will the teams' top players, particularly those preparing for the NFL Draft in the spring, decide to sit out the game to forgo the risk of injury?

Kiffin said he did not expect any of his Rebels to opt-out. Franklin sounded optimistic, as well, but said those discussions with players and their families were still ongoing.

(Only PSU star cornerback Joey Porter Jr. opted out of last year's Rose Bowl. A large contingent of Lions, however, sat out the lower-level ReliaQuest Bowl vs. Arkansas the year before).

No matter, the Lions were headed to one of the biggest bowls directly below the playoffs — once big favorites Michigan and Texas took care of business in Saturday's conference championship games.

That opened at-large spots for Penn State in the Peach, Cotton and Fiesta bowls.

Big Ten voters: 23 touchdowns, 1 interception: Is Penn State football's Drew Allar an All-Big Ten pick?

How he survived, then thrived: His mother saved him and 5 brothers. How Penn State football's Theo Johnson gives thanks

Frank Bodani covers Penn State football for the York Daily Record and USA Today Network. Contact him at  fbodani@ydr.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @YDRPennState.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Penn State football, James Franklin in the Peach Bowl vs. Ole Miss