Penn State was ranked 12th by the College Football Playoff selection committee in its initial rankings for 2016-7. There were other surprises.
The top three are Alabama, Clemson, and Michigan, as you might have expected. Nothing radical there.
However, Texas A&M was ranked fourth, edging out undefeated Washington. The Aggies’ only loss this year was to Alabama, while the Huskies have only one road win against a ranked opponent.
Ohio State is number six, then Louisville. Rounding out the top ten are Wisconsin, Auburn, and Nebraska.
And then the rest: Florida, Penn State, LSU, Oklahoma, Colorado, Utah, Baylor, OK State, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, North Carolina, Florida State, Western Michigan, Boise State, and Washington State.
The committee consists of Kirby Hocutt, Chair, Barry Alvarez, Jeff Bower, Herb Deromedi, Tom Jernstedt, Bobby Johnson, Jeff Long, Rob Mullens, Dan Radakovich, Condoleeza Rice, Steve Wieberg, and Tyrone Willingham.
Big Al says
Think it’s more like inordinate respect for Urban Meyer and the transitive effect of State beating Ohio State. It looks like the committee is overestimating the ability of the entire B1G. But they’re probably correct about State being the 5th best team in the B1G (at least until midnight this Saturday).
Actually, a New Year’s match up against Florida wouldn’t be all that bad. We won’t have to worry about losing by 5 touchdowns because there’s no way Florida can score 35 points.