Penn State College Football Playoff Seeding Reaction Show
On Sunday afternoon, the Penn State Nittany Lions football team discovered its destiny in the College Football Playoff. The committee rewarded the team’s Big Ten schedule and its close losses to Ohio State and Oregon with the sixth seed in the playoff bracket. Penn State fell only one spot after losing in the Big Ten Championship game to fourth in the overall playoff rankings. With the conference champions getting byes into the first round, Penn State was the second non-conference champion in the playoff, behind Texas in the fifth spot.
Join the Penn State Football Playoff Seeding Reaction Show as we discuss the team’s first-round matchup against the 11th-seeded SM Mustangs, who beat out Alabama for the final spot in the playoff bracket. Blue White Illustrated experts Sean Fitz and Nate Bauer join the show live from Indianapolis to discuss how the playoff committee handled the playoff bracket, their thoughts about Penn State’s matchup with SMU, and the team’s overall chances of making a run at a national championship.
Check out the show on our YouTube Channel, embedded on the site, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Did Penn State get the best possible path?
As Bauer pointed out during the run-up to conference championship weekend, the biggest debate around college football would be about penalizing participation in those games. The Committee didn not penalize Penn State for losing to the top-ranked team. ESPN’s Reece Davis asked Playoff Committee Chairman Ward Manuel about just how fair it was for Oregon and Penn State to get drastically different paths foward.
“It turns out, the way things have fallen, it might be the six seed instead that is deemed more advantageous. Oregon, the only undefeated team in the country. You guys have deemed them the best team in this playoff. They are the Big Ten champions, and they just beat Penn State. And then when you look at their quarter-final game against either Ohio State or Tennessee, it might be that the ducks have a more disadvantageous road than the six-seed Penn State does in taking on an SMU team that barely made it in, and Boise State, who is not quite as highly ranked.”
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Manuel deferred answering the question, saying that it was his committee’s job to rank the top 25 teams in the country. From there, the rules of automatic byes in the playoffs changed the picture for teams in the field. However, it stands to reason that Penn State’s path is favorable.
We discuss those notions on the show as well.
What we know about SMU
From there, we discuss what we know about the first-round matchup with SMU, which will be held at Beaver Stadium on Dec. 21st. Finally, we give you a quick preview of the players you need to know and how the team has played so far this season.
