Penn State was hardly punished by College Football Playoff committee for its loss to Ohio State

The first College Football Playoff Rankings of the 12-team era were released on Tuesday night and even coming off a loss to Ohio State, James Franklin’s 7-1 Penn State Nittany Lions checked in at No. 6 in the country. There are only five remaining unbeaten teams heading into Week 10, and with so many contenders already suffering one loss, the unbeaten teams weren’t rewarded on Tuesday night, and Penn State was hardly punished. 

Heading into the weekend, Penn State was No. 3 in the AP Poll, one spot ahead of Ohio State at No. 4. It’s not surprising that a loss didn’t torpedo the Nittany Lions, but considering the lack of quality wins on Penn State’s resume, it was a bit of a shock that teams like 9-0 Indiana (No. 8) or 8-0 BYU (No. 9) didn’t end up much higher. Penn State is the fourth highest-ranked one-loss team, behind No. 2 Ohio State (only loss to No. 1 Oregon), No. 3 Georgia (only loss to No. 11 Alabama), and No. 5 Texas (only loss to No. 3 Georgia). 

Penn State’s three best wins are on the road at West Virginia, a team that is currently sitting at 4-4 in sixth place in the mediocre Big 12, at home over then-No. 19 Illinois, which has since fallen to 6-3 with a loss to Minnesota in Week 10, and on the road in overtime against a USC team that is 4-5 and 2-5 in Big Ten play. It’d be surprising if those wins were enough to impress the committee, so the reality is that Penn State’s familiar brand and preseason expectations kept the Hoosiers and Cougars at bay. 

Now, Curt Cignetti’s upstart Indiana team doesn’t boast any impressive wins either. In the non-conference, the Hoosiers played Florida International, Western Illinois, and Charlotte, hardly a group of world-beaters. However, they’ve yet to win a game by less than 14 points, even with a backup quarterback against Washington, arguably the toughest team in IU’s schedule so far. Regardless of the lack of a quality win, shouldn’t an undefeated Big Ten team simply take precedence over a one-loss Big Ten team? 

If Indiana’s argument isn’t compelling enough, what about BYU? The Cougars have impressive wins, pounding Kansas State 38-9 and beating an SMU team that has climbed up to No. 13 with an 8-1 record in these first rankings. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that Penn State benefits from brand recognition and a preseason head-start, but the committee is handling this process incorrectly if the Nittany Lions are ahead of Indiana and BYU. This isn’t about power rankings, it's about a resume of work that makes the results on the field matter. If the committee doesn’t believe that Indiana will be as competitive as Penn State was when the Hoosiers take on Ohio State in a few weeks, then perfect, that will play itself out on the field. Ohio State will score a blowout win and then the committee can drop the Hoosiers below the Nittany Lions. 

The same goes for BYU, but the only difference is that the Cougars lead the Big 12, so they can claim a top-four spot as long as they stay a nose ahead of Boise State. 

The first College Football Playoff Rankings were far too predictive. I was okay with it when Alabama jumped Florida State into the four-team CFP last season. The Seminoles were so obviously leaking oil without Jordan Travis and when only four teams make the cut, eye test can be a bigger factor. But when you introduce a 12-team playoff, which inherently devalues the regular season already, the results on the field have to matter that much more for these rankings. 

Whether Penn State was punished for its loss or not, Franklin’s team would have a chance to play its way back into a first-round home game as potentially fraudulent undefeated teams come back down to earth. The committee should let the results dictate its rankings, not try to be ahead of the results. If the No. 4 team in the country loses to No. 23, they weren’t wrong about the rankings, they got new information with an additional result and can adjust accordingly next week. Instead, it seems they tried to predict what the actual final CFP will look like in a month.