Week 2 of the college football season was kind to Penn State with a comfortable victory against Ball State. But how many teams ranked ahead of the Nittany Lions took a loss? Not as many last week, of course, after Penn State made a nice jump up in the rankings this week. But there were easily some big developments to be aware of.
One of the biggest stories of the day took place right in the Big Ten with Ohio State getting upset at home by the Oregon Ducks. The result of the game means nothing as far as the Big Ten championship picture right now, and the fallout doesn’t figure to be one that will help Penn State’s position in the rankings either. While the Buckeyes will drop a few spots, Penn State will be unable to make up any ground on Oregon. The USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll had Oregon ranked No. 11 going into the week, two spots ahead of Penn State. And like Clemson’s loss a week ago, Ohio State’s loss very likely won’t be costly enough to drop the Buckeyes behind Penn State.
But Penn State will be assured of moving ahead of at least one team this week.
Knowing that Iowa and Iowa State were each just ahead of the Nittany Lions and facing each other in their in-state rivalry game, Penn State was guaranteed to move up at least one spot as long as it avoided a disaster against Ball State (which it did). In the coaches poll, Iowa State entered the week ranked No. 10 and the Hawkeeyswere at No. 12. With Iowa winning by a score of 27-17, the Hawkeyes will stay ahead of Penn State, and may even create a slight bit of separation as the poll shakes out a bit. Expect the Cyclones to drop behind Penn State in the coaches poll as a result. Penn State should move ahead of Iowa State in the AP Top 25 as well (Iowa State, Iowa, and Penn State were ranked 9, 10, and 11 respectively in the last AP poll).
No school ranked behind Penn State looks like it will be in a position to make any argument to jump ahead of Penn State this week, other than Oregon in the AP poll. So the other question this week will be how much stock is there in Notre Dame after Week 2?