Penn State jumps into top 3 of College Football Playoff rankings ahead of Big Ten Championship

Penn State football continues to move up the College Football Playoff bracket, coming in at No. 3 in the penultimate edition of the rankings released Tuesday night. The rankings set the Nittany Lions up for a top-three showdown against No. 1 Oregon in Saturday’s Big Ten Championship Game.

Like the AP and Coaches Polls this week, the Nittany Lions elevate one spot in the rankings following Ohio State’s loss to Michigan. The Buckeyes’ upset also cleared the path for James Franklin to lead Penn State football to its second conference title game appearance.

If the conference title race ended today under the new 12-team College Football Playoff format, Penn State would host a home-first round playoff game on the weekend of December 20-21. Despite being ranked No. 3, the Nittany Lions would be seeded No. 5 and host No. 15/No. 12-seed Arizona State. However, if Penn State claims the conference crown on Saturday night, the Nittany Lions would earn a first-round bye.

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“No. 1, I’m focused on the things that I can control, which is being prepared to play Oregon and play Oregon well,” James Franklin said on Sunday. “Those other things [rankings] are outside of my control.

“I think everybody recognizes that we want to make sure that these [conference championship] games do not become a penalty. I think there’s been a lot of conversation about that, and there’s a bunch of really good football people that are on the [CFP Selection] Committee that I think understand that.”

The full CFP top 25 for Week 11 is as follows:

1. Oregon
2. Texas
3. Penn State (seeded No. 5)
4. Notre Dame (seeded No. 6)
5.  Georgia (seeded No. 7)
6.  Ohio State (seeded No. 8)
7.  Tennessee (seeded No. 9)
8.  SMU (seeded No. 3 if conference champion)
9.  Indiana (seeded No. 10)
10.  Boise State (seeded No. 4 if conference champion)
11.  Alabama
12.  Miami (would miss playoff)
13.  Ole Miss
14.  South Carolina 
15.  Arizona State (would make playoff if conference champion)
16.  Iowa State
17.  Clemson
18.  BYU
19.  Missouri
20.  UNLV
21.  Illinois
22.  Syracuse
23.  Colorado
24.  Army
25.  Memphis

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