Could Penn State be punished for losing in Saturdayโs Big Ten Championship Game?
Thatโs a question many have been asking. Itโs a question I asked College Football Playoff Chair Warde Manuel on Tuesday nightโs CFP conference call.
Penn State goes into Saturdayโs showdown with No. 1 Oregon ranked No. 3.
If Penn State wins, what happens next is obvious. PSU will have an automatic first-round bye as the Big Ten champ, likely as the No. 1 overall seed. If Penn State loses? Well, thatโs a loaded question. Could the team fall behind Notre Dame, which is on PSUโs heels at No. 4, or Ohio State, which is further back at No. 6 but has a head-to-head win at Beaver Stadium?
Hereโs what Manuel said.
WHAT HE SAID?
EAST LANSING, MI – OCTOBER 21: Michigan Wolverines Athletics Director Warde Manuel greets people prior to a college football game between the Michigan State Spartans and Michigan Wolverines on October 21, 2023 at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, MI. (Photo by Adam Ruff/Icon Sportswire)
Listen, the committee has coaches, athletic directors, former players who have played the game. We have great respect for the teams that make their championship games, and we give them a lot of credit for what they’ve done throughout the season.
But we’ve been asked by the commissioners to rank the top 25 through the end of the championship weekend, and so we have an obligation to take a look at those datapoints and the outcomes of those games in order to rank the final top 25, and that’s what they’ve asked us to do since the inception, and that’s what we’ll do this weekend once all the games are played.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
Photo by Matt Lynch, Nittany Sports Now: James Franklin
Itโs hard to say exactly what Manuelโs words mean but if itโs true that the committee values teams that make it to their conference title games, Penn State should be ok so long as it doesnโt get demolished by Oregon.
As long as Penn State finishes with a top eight seed, it will host a Playoff game at Beaver Stadium.
The first 12-team College Football Playoff begins Friday, Dec. 20 at 8 on ABC/ESPN.
