Penn State climbs to 8th in playoff rankings

Washington’s path to the College Football Playoff may have grown more hard, but it is by no means impossible. “Me and Tommy (Stevens) were watching it”. “We’ve got to get ready for Michigan State”.

The Huskies fell from No. 4 to No. 6 in the most recent iteration of the CFP rankings released Tuesday night, the result of Saturday’s 26-13 loss to USC at Husky Stadium. That makes it the priciest Ohio State home game since 2010. “Like you’re going to leave Ohio State out?”

However, if Alabama remains in the No. 1 position and Clemson sits in fourth, those two would meet in one of the semifinals. Here on the playoff committee, we loooove conference champions.

Will Ohio State make the CFB Playoff without a conference championship? Additionally, the Committee has seen Louisville struggle with teams like Duke and Virginia, which combined only have six wins on the season. With John O’ Korn under center for the Wolverines we aren’t quite sure what to expect, but I don’t think they’ll look much different.

Ohio State appears to have ironed out issues on offense since the October 22 loss at Penn State, outscoring Nebraska and Maryland 124-3 in the last two games.

Because of the loss to Penn State, and Michigan’s loss at Iowa on Saturday, Ohio State could be kept out of the conference title game by the tiebreaker system, even if the Buckeyes beat Michigan State and then Michigan on November 26. You’ll hear people say Clemson is toast if they don’t win the ACC, but what matters is NOW.

Wisconsin (8-2), Penn State (8-2), Oklahoma (8-2), and Colorado (8-2) round out the top ten. The committee also rewards teams for good wins more than it punishes them for bad losses. All they have done all year is beat up on inferior opponents – of course they are going to look dominant…

But the Nittany Lions hold the tiebreaker over the Buckeyes, fair and square.

The problem is, Penn State’s lone loss came at the hands of MI. If Clemson wins that, the Big Ten shakes out as expected and Alabama wins out, Louisville’s playoff dream ends. But I think it should be Clemson 3 and MI 4. Then it’s the Big one Against Auburn in the Iron Bowl.

This season, the OSU-Michigan State battle has a similar context, but for only one team. Then the question becomes if the playoff committee will keep Ohio State in the top four without a conference championship on its résumé.

Ohio State could break the playoff.

Penn State is also 8-2 after scoring 24 fourth-quarter points for a comeback win over IN last weekend. The Nittany Lions would have that head-to-head and a conference title, but two losses are more than one.

The Cavaliers (2-8, 1-5 Atlantic Coast Conference) lost their fifth straight on Saturday, 34-14 against Miami.

If the Tigers win out, they’re in as a one-loss ACC Champion, and at that point in time, it will be tough for anyone to debate that their status in the top four.

No. 2 Ohio State has one more hurdle before getting to its much-anticipated showdown with MI next weekend.

The Buckeyes are in a tough spot as far as winning their conference, but will still have a very good chance of making the playoff if they win their remaining two games, one being against #3 MI.

Although numerous reports have put Speight on the shelf for the season, head coach Jim Harbaugh is still showing a little gamesmanship by not tipping his hand in a situation that is extremely unfortunate for a team with playoff aspirations. The best way to break it down is by conferences rather than teams, since too much is still up in the air.

DiNardo is right on target.

Behind the dynastic Tide, however, came a wave of chaos that reminded everyone why college football is the ideal American sports spectacle and why trying to boil it down to four teams may be a fool’s errand. “Both those young men and their families are perfectly comfortable with us doing whatever we have to do to win and put the team first”.

Which scenario seems most plausible? Here’s hoping that in the future, a better source of balance might be built in place, where a potential division title contender can’t miss every single probable strong team from the other division while their peers grab all of them.

“We have reasons to play, even if it’s in a spoiler fashion”, Dantonio said.

That leads back to Meyer. “But the focus is obviously Michigan State”.