At this point in the season, most analysts have Penn State in the College Football Playoff.
After all, PSU is 3-0 and ranked No. 9 in the nation currently. Historically, Penn State would have made a 12-team playoff field in six of the past eight seasons.
So to see Penn State projected in the Playoff is no surprise but projections have varying opponents.
One major analyst has Dabo Swinney and Clemson coming to town. Bud Elliot of On3Sports has Penn State seeded No. 6 and hosting No. 11 Clemson, which is currently 2-1 and ranked No. 17. Elliot has Ohio State winning the Big Ten and Miami winning the ACC.
In Elliot’s projection, Ohio State, which Penn State hosts Nov. 2 in a showdown at Beaver Stadium, is the No. 1 team in the country.
My updated college football playoff projection
Have at it pic.twitter.com/FpdVXmA4I2
— Bud Elliott (@BudElliott3) September 23, 2024
Texas, the current No. 1, is the No. 2 seed, having won the SEC (imagine the last part of that sentence being a possibility 10 years ago?)
ACC champion Miami  is the No. 3 seed and Big 12 champ Utah rounds out the automatic bids at No. 4.
Georgia, which currently ranks No. 2, is the first at-large team at No. 5, hosting Group of 5 champ UNLV.
The 7-10 game would be an SEC battle between Tennessee and Ole Miss in Knoxville, and Elliot has a third Big Ten team making it in No. 8 Oregon, which would host the fifth SEC team in No. 9 Alabama.
Penn State has nine more regular-season games before it can worry about the postseason. The first of those nine is scheduled for Saturday night at 7:30 against No. 19 Illinois. It will be a stripe out game, but James Franklin hinted that he wants it to be a White Out.
