{"id":764228,"date":"2017-11-01T11:21:56","date_gmt":"2017-11-01T15:21:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/?p=764228"},"modified":"2017-11-01T11:21:56","modified_gmt":"2017-11-01T15:21:56","slug":"college-football-playoff-rankings-reveal-no-7-penn-state-is-still-on-the-radar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/college-football-playoff-rankings-reveal-no-7-penn-state-is-still-on-the-radar\/","title":{"rendered":"College Football Playoff rankings reveal No. 7 Penn State is still on the radar"},"content":{"rendered":"

The initial College Football Playoff rankings<\/a> for the 2017 season were unveiled Tuesday night, and Penn State landed in the same spot they did in the AP Top 25 and the coaches poll. At No. 7, Penn State is the fifth-best one-loss team in the nation as determined by the selection committee for the playoff. And if we’re being honest, that feels like a pretty fair assessment given the data used to form this ranking.<\/p>\n

No. 3 Notre Dame’s only loss of the year came at home by one point against No. 1 Georgia. The Irish are the only team to really find a way to hang with the Bulldogs this season, so the Irish landing third was to be expected given back-to-back wins against USC and NC State on top of an earlier victory over Michigan State. Notre Dame unquestionably has the best resume of the one-loss teams.<\/p>\n

No. 4 Clemson made some noise early in the year with\u00a0big road wins at Louisville and Virginia Tech, although the Tigers may be getting a bit of a pass for being the defending national champions here. Their road loss at Syracuse may not have been the ugliest a loss a playoff team could suffer, especially while playing with a banged-up quarterback who was knocked out just before halftime. The Tigers have not been spectacular lately and have not been burying their opponents the way they did earlier in the season. Having Clemson No. 4 is probably too high, but they’ll get a game at NC State to prove they belong here this weekend.<\/p>\n

No. 5 Oklahoma\u00a0had the worst loss in the nation for a playoff contender until we started to realize that Iowa State may actually be pretty good. The loss at home to the No. 15 Cyclones is hardly the stain it could have been any other season. And Oklahoma has one key win in their favor over the next two teams in line; a road win at Ohio State.<\/p>\n

No. 6 Ohio State came in just ahead of No. 7 Penn State after this past weekend’s victory in Columbus. This was fair and to be expected. And because they lost to Oklahoma, the Buckeyes should have been slotted behind Oklahoma in the first rankings. What does this all mean for Penn State? A few things.<\/p>\n

First, Penn State is still very much on the College Football Playoff radar no matter how much some have been quick to dismiss the Nittany Lions with a month to play. One need to look no further than the brief history of the last three teams to come in at No. 7 in the initial playoff rankings for validation of that idea.<\/p>\n

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Previous No. 7\u2019s in @CFBPlayoff<\/a>\u2019s initial rankings:<\/p>\n

2014: TCU
2015: Michigan State*
2016: Louisville<\/p>\n

* Won Big Ten, reached CFB Playoff<\/p>\n

— Nittany Lions Wire (@NittanyLionWire) November 1, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n