Penn State No. 12 In College Playoff Rankings
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Penn State football may have had a better month of October than any other team in the country. And people are noticing.
Penn State (6-2, 4-1) came in at No. 12 in the initial College Football Playoff rankings, which were released on Tuesday night. The committee was especially impressed with Penn State's quality of wins vs. Temple, Minnesota, Maryland, Purdue, and of course, their thrilling upset win over then No.2 ranked Ohio State.
Penn State was ranked inside the AP top 25 for the first time since 2011 last week. After their 62-24 demolishing of Purdue, PSU jumped from No. 24 to No. 20 in this week's poll.
"Penn State still, mathematically, has a chance if things can work out to get to a Big Ten championship game," said ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit. "That's a shocker to me. That's great news for the folks in State College."
Penn State, at 4-1 in the conference, is currently just one game behind 5-0 Michigan in the Big Ten East. Penn State is favored in all four of their remaining games: vs. Iowa, at Indiana, at Rutgers, vs. Michigan State.
The top four teams in the initial playoff rankings are Alabama, Clemson, Michigan, and Texas A&M.