With one game remaining in the regular season, Pen State continues to be sitting in a promising spot for a big bowl game invite. That was made clear once again on Tuesday evening with the release of this week’s College Football Playoff rankings. Penn State moved up to no. 11 in this week’s rankings from the playoff selection committee.
The top four teams in the playoff rankings this week are no. 1 Georgia, no. 2 Ohio State, no. 3 Michigan and no. 4 Washington. Washington moved up one spot ahead of no. 5 Florida State, who will play for the ACC championship but will play the remainder of the season without star quarterback Jordan Travis.
Penn State is 1-2 against teams ranked this week with losses to Ohio State and Michigan and a win over no. 17 Iowa. Iowa actually moved down one spot in this week’s rankings, but having the Hawkeyes in the top 20 is a data point Penn State really needs. Iowa will play in the Big Ten championship game against the winner of this week’s Michigan-Ohio State game.
Penn State stays one spot ahead of Ole Miss and two spots ahead of Oklahoma. All three teams are 9-2 this season, and each moved up one spot this week with the fall of Oregon State. Louisville is ranked no. 10 to block Penn State from a top 10 spot in the rankings. The only 2-loss team ranked higher than Penn State is Missouri at no. 9.
Penn State was ranked no. 11 in the first release of the playoff rankings on Oct. 31. The Nittany Lions crept up to no. 10 the following week (Nov. 7) but dropped two spots to no. 12 last week (Nov. 14) following a home loss to Michigan.
The College Football Playoff selection committee will release one more set of rankings next week before heading into the conference championship weekend. Then the committee will put together its final set of rankings on Sunday, Dec. 3 to determine which four teams will play in this season’s College Football Playoff and the rest of the New Years Six bowl games.
Penn State will close its regular season this Friday, Nov. 24 with a game against Michigan State in Detroit. A win would likely put Penn State in a great spot to secure an invite to a New Years Six bowl game, with a couple of options firmly in play.
Here is the full list as released on Tuesday night.
| Rank | Team | Record | Change |
| 1 | Georgia | 11-0 | – |
| 2 | Ohio State | 11-0 | – |
| 3 | Michigan | 11-0 | – |
| 4 | Washington | 11-0 | +1 |
| 5 | Florida State | 11-0 | -1 |
| 6 | Oregon | 10-1 | – |
| 7 | Texas | 10-1 | – |
| 8 | Alabama | 10-1 | – |
| 9 | Missouri | 9-2 | – |
| 10 | Louisville | 10-1 | – |
| 11 | Penn State | 9-2 | +1 |
| 12 | Ole Miss | 9-2 | +1 |
| 13 | Oklahoma | 9-2 | +1 |
| 14 | LSU | 8-3 | +1 |
| 15 | Arizona | 15 | +2 |
| 16 | Oregon State | 8-3 | -5 |
| 17 | Iowa | 9-2 | -1 |
| 18 | Notre Dame | 8-3 | +1 |
| 19 | Kansas State | 8-3 | +2 |
| 20 | Oklahoma State | 8-3 | +3 |
| 21 | Tennessee | 7-4 | -3 |
| 22 | NC State | 8-3 | NR |
| 23 | Tulane | 10-1 | +1 |
| 24 | Clemson | 7-4 | NR |
| 25 | Liberty | 11-0 | NR |
Dropped Out:
North Carolina (20), Utah (22), Kansas (25)
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