Penn State ranked no. 3 in final College Football Playoff rankings of regular season

Here is where Penn State is ranked in this week’s College Football Playoff rankings and what the bracket might look like.

Penn State has moved up one more time in the College Football Playoff rankings, but there is still work to be done in order to get a first-round bye in the upcoming playoff.

Penn State jumped up to no. 3 in this week’s playoff rankings on Tuesday night as they prepare to take on no. 1 Oregon in this week’s Big Ten championship game in Indianapolis. The winner of the Big Ten championship game will get a first-round bye in the playoff and may end up being the no. 1 seed regardless of who wins.

As the top four seeds are reserved for the highest-ranked conference champions, Penn State is currently projected to host a first-round playoff game as the no. 5 seed. That would set up a home game against potential Big 12 champion Arizona State. If Penn State does lose to Oregon, it remains to be seen exactly what seed the Nittany Lions would end up getting.

The current College Football Playoff bracket would send the winner of a matchup between Penn State and Arizona State on to the quarterfinal round to face potential Mountain West Conference champion Boise State, with a semifinal matchup with Oregon (or Ohio State or Tennessee) on the horizon after that.

Below is what the College Football Playoff bracket would look like based off of these updated rankings before the conference championship game weekend, with higher seeds being given the conference championship seeding where applicable.

First-Round Byes

  1. Oregon
  2. Texas
  3. SMU
  4. Boise State

First-Round Matchups

  • 5. Penn State vs. 12. Arizona State
  • 6. Notre Dame vs. 11. Alabama
  • 7. Georgia vs. 10. Indiana
  • 8. Ohio State vs. 9. Tennessee

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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