Only four undefeated FBS teams remain in college football after Miami’s loss to Georgia Tech in Week 11. So, one of the committee’s most important tasks for the second edition of the 12-team College Football Playoff rankings was to compare losses, and Penn State’s 20-13 loss to Ohio State compared very favorably.
Penn State checked in at No. 4, only behind two one-loss teams, No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Texas with 10-0 Oregon at No. 1. The Nittany Lions were even ahead of 10-0 Indiana at No. 5 and 9-0 BYU at No. 6. With that ranking, Penn State projects to host No. 11 Ole Miss at Beaver Stadium in the first round of the CFP as the No. 6 seed. However, it’s not hard to argue that James Franklin’s annual loss to the Buckeyes is holding too much weight.
While on the scoreboard it was just a one-score loss to the committee’s No. 2 team, Penn State didn’t play Ohio State that closely at Beaver Stadium. The Nittany Lions didn’t manage an offensive touchdown and had a fortunate bounce go their way when Ohio State quarterback Will Howard fumbled out of the Penn State end zone to turn a sure touchdown into a touchback. Howard, the Pennsylvania native, spotted his hometown team 14 points with that play and a pick-six on his first pass attempt of the game.
If the committee just looked a the result, it could easily be tricked into thinking that Penn State and Ohio State are similar teams, if you watched closely, you know that the Buckeyes are a tier above. It’s still a good loss, but without a strong win on the resume, it’s hard to argue that Franklin’s team should be slotted above the unbeaten Hoosiers or a 9-0 BYU team with wins over Kansas State (No. 16 in this week’s rankings) and SMU (No. 14 this week). The most important parts of Penn State’s resume are a loss that shouldn’t have been close and name recognition as a perennial powerhouse.
Now, I’m not arguing that Penn State should have slid after dismantling Washington 35-6 in the White Out on Saturday, more that it should have never been ranked as highly as it was last week at No. 6. Difficult schedules or not, Indiana and BYU should be rewarded for an undefeated record, and No. 7 Tennessee should get more credit for beating Alabama (now No. 10), despite a bad loss to Arkansas.
The Nittany Lions have not beaten a team that was featured in either week’s CFP rankings. Penn State is lucky to be No. 4 and can’t waste that gift because there isn’t an opportunity for a statement win on the rest of its schedule.