It should come as little surprise to see Penn State continuing to make some moves up in the national polls and rankings. Even if you believe Penn State has benefitted more from other teams losing than Penn State actually proving they are legitimately one of the top three teams in the country, it is not the Nittany Lions who are to blame for continuing to win games when nearly everyone else is not.
Despite Penn State losing head-to-head to Ohio State earlier this season, the Buckeyes’ taking their second loss of the year this past weekend at home against an average Michigan team led to Penn State moving ahead of Ohio State in the latest US LBM Coaches Poll and the AP Top 25. That trend is expected to continue with the updated College Football Playoff rankings leading up to Penn State’s appearance in the Big Ten championship game this week against top-ranked Oregon. The trend also flowed into the latest thoughts from Fox college football analyst Joel Klatt, who moved Penn State up to no. 3 in his personal weekly rankings.
Like in the mainline polls, Klatt has Penn State sitting behind only Oregon and Texas, respectively. Klatt dropped Ohio State down to no. 7 this week, slotting the Buckeyes behind two-loss Georgia (no. 5) and Tennessee (no. 6). Klatt also has one-loss Notre Dame one spot behind Penn State at no. 4 before jumping into his pack of two-loss contenders.
Klatt does have 11-1 Indiana one spot behind Ohio State, followed by SMU and Alabama to round out his top-10.
Penn State will battle Oregon on Saturday night in Indianapolis for the Big Ten championship game. Kickoff is set for 8:00 p.m. on CBS. This will be the first meeting between Penn State and Oregon as Big Ten opponents and the first meeting between the two schools since the 1995 Rose Bowl. Penn State opened as a slight underdog but has a slightly favorable win probability according to ESPN’s analytics.
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