In projections news, a major analyst has Penn State making the College Football Playoff and hosting fellow Big Ten school.
Monday morning, Brett McMurphy of the Action Network released his latest bowl and College Football Playoff projections.
In those projections, Penn State, as the No. 8 seed, is taking on No. 9 Oregon in the first round of the College Football Playoff at Beaver Stadium.
My new Week 6 @ActionNetworkHQ bowl projections. @CFBPlayoff: Alabama, Ohio St, Miami, Iowa St; UNLV at Georgia, Oregon at Penn St, Clemson at Tennessee, USC at Texas. Also, Gator: LSU-Pitt; Sun: Colorado-Boston College; Music City: Illinois-Oklahoma https://t.co/Hn70tJbLIV
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) September 30, 2024
Penn State is currently ranked No. 7 in the AP Poll, while Oregon is ranked No. 6. Both teams are 4-0 and still have to play Ohio State, which McMurphy has winning the Big Ten and being the No. 2 seed, one of four to get a first-round bye.
McMurphy has SEC Champ Alabama as the No. 1 overall seed, ACC king Miami at No. 3 and Iowa State, ruler of the Big 12, as the No. 4.
Georgia, which lost at Alabama in a classic this past Saturday night, is the first at-large team at No. 5.
The Dawgs would be hosting No. 12 UNLV, who which would have an automatic bid as the highest-ranked Group of 5 team.
Current No. 2 Texas would be the six-seed, hosting Big Ten newbie USC. Another SEC school, Tennessee, would be hosting another school that wears orange in Clemson. That brings us to the 8-9 matchup, which is always a tricky one to predict.
McMurphy has Oregon as a slight favorite (-0.5) and beating Penn State in the first round. Make of that what you will.
In any case, the latest Oregon would be making its first trip to Happy Valley since 1964– two years after the events of Animal House— is next season, when its on Penn State’s regular season schedule.
