Where is Penn State in the latest projected College Football Playoff brackets?
Penn State sits at No. 3 in the Associated Press top 25 and the USA Today Coaches Poll following its 33-30 win over USC. It moved head coach James Frankin’s team to 6-0 ahead of its second bye week, which it wraps up this weekend before moving on to a 7:30 p.m. ET tilt at Wisconsin next Saturday on NBC.
“I just think when you talk about the middle of the season, game six, it’s a good point to have a bye,” Franklin said Tuesday night. “Sometimes you get a bye really early, sometimes you get a buy late, and not the best position for the bye to land, but this is at a good point. And then, obviously coming off a win, I’d probably feel very different if we hadn’t come off a win. But coming off a win, there’s good vibes. There’s good mojo. We got a chance to still learn and teach and grow after a win, which I think is a really important skill and tool for us all to learn.
“Like I talked about before, you shouldn’t need a setback to take a step forward, to have the maturity to work on the things that you need to improve on. So I think the staff is approaching it that way. I think that the players are approaching it that way. I thought today was a really good example of that.”
Here is where Penn State sits in the latest media College Football Playoff projected brackets. The first CFP rankings come out Nov. 5.
Where is Penn State in the latest College Football Playoff bracket projections?
We start with a look at the latest outlook from On3’s team of national writers. Ari Wasserman has the Lions at No. 7 and hosting No. 10 Indiana in a first round playoff game for the right to play No. 2 Oregon in the Sugar Bowl. Jesse Simonton, meanwhile, has PSU at No. 6 and hosting No. 11 LSU for the chance to play No. 3 Miami. Last but not least, Andy Staples has No. 6 Penn State hosting No. 11 Texas A&M for a shot at No. 3 Clemson in the Peach Bowl.
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At ESPN, Heather Dinich has the Nittany Lions at No. 5 and hosting No. 12 Iowa State. The winner of that game, in her projection, would face No. 4 BYU in a quarterfinal matchup.
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“This bracket features two Big 12 teams: conference champion BYU and runner-up Iowa State,” Dinich writes. “This also shows that while Penn State could be the committee’s No. 3 team overall, the Nittany Lions can’t finish higher than the fifth seed without winning the Big Ten. (The first four spots are reserved for conference champions.) According to ESPN Analytics, Penn State is No. 8 in the country with a 20% chance to earn a first-round bye.”
Also at ESPN, Kyle Bonagura has No. 11 Clemson at No. 6 Penn State, while Mark Schlabach has No. 10 Iowa State at No. 7 Penn State.
For CBS Sports, Jerry Palm has PSU at No. 8 and hosting No. 9 BYU.
Stewart Mandel of The Athletic also has Penn State hosting a first round game. He has it No. 6 facing No. 11 LSU. And, Austin Mock’s data model says the Lions are one of the biggest risers in the odds to make the CFP department. They had a 66.1 percent chance in the preseason and now own a 91.4 percent chance.
