Why Penn State should now be No. 2
As No. 1 Texas lost tonight in Lubbock, coupled with No. 8 Florida's demolition of No. 6 Georgia, I immediately started the inevitable argument: Who should be No. 2 now? I came up with a few reasons why Penn State shouldn't get jumped by any other team this week, specifically Texas Tech or Florida.
1. Texas Tech's win wasn't as impressive as Penn State's in Columbus. Tech won a night game, at home, against a Texas team that was a bit overrated overall, and very overrated on defense. State won a night game, away, in a stadium where the home team only lost three games since 2001, against an Ohio State team that wasn't overrated overall, but definitely underrated on defense coming into the game. Texas Tech also made several costly mistakes, like turnovers, penalties and gave up many big plays for scores. Penn State played a very clean game, away remember, without turnovers, no penalties and never gave up even a touchdown.
2. Florida already lost a game, at home, to a very mediocre Mississippi squad. In college football, you must win your games first, then argue for a spot in the National Championship game. Until there aren't any undefeated BCS-conference teams (Alabama, Penn State and Texas Tech are the only three left), you have no place in the title picture. Should Bama, PSU or Tech fall, then Florida can reenter the race.* And if the final polls come down to which team's loss was "better" or "worse," then the check list goes: 1. Home loss, or away loss? 2. How good or bad was the other team? 3. Was the game result close, and was the entire game close?
3. Penn State's schedule is tougher than the doubters suggest. Have you noticed that every time anyone (ahem, Mark May, Desmond Howard & Co.) runs down Penn State's "soft" non-conference schedule, they always leave out that pesky team from Corvallis? Yeah, Penn State embarrassed that same Oregon State team which beat Southern California. Throw in Ohio State, Wisconsin (yes, still a tough place to play) and Illinois, and you've got a decent schedule. Florida lost to Ole Miss, and beat very clearly overrated LSU and Georgia teams, neither of which were true road wins. I'm not saying Florida's schedule was easier than Penn States, just not hard enough to jump an undefeated Penn State in the rankings.
So there you go. Argue all you want. That's what college football is about, "every week is a playoff," right?
*This situation should actually remedy itself. Should Bama go undefeated, and Florida wins out, they'll meet in the SEC title game, eliminating one of them from NC consideration. Plus, Texas Tech will have to run the table, which would be very impressive, earning the Red Raiders their spot in the NC game above any one-loss team.
**On Alabama: while I do believe Penn State could beat Alabama, the Crimson Tide gets my nod for No 1 right now. That's not due to the lack-luster win over Arkansas State (which Penn State bumped from its 2008 schedule in favor of Oregon State, just saying), but because they have a slightly better resume, right now, than the Nittany Lions.
5 Commented on this story:
What will be better this morning is to see how the Big 12 teams get slotted, since TX beat OU, and TT beat TX. Since OU is currently 4th, where can u put TX? The need to be above OU and below TT right? How will that work w/o dropping OU from 4th? This is whats fkd up about polls, and the weighting on a loss later in the season, among other flaws
I would agree with Bama 1st and PSU second at present time. The real mess begins after #3. I do think that Bama will eventually get destroyed by Florida which will solidify the position for PSU. TT will probably lose to OSU and OU in the next two games and play themselves out of it. That defense is to suspect to continue beating the big boys. We cannot forget USC, creeping back in there as well.
A one loss Florida, OU, and USC would all be challenging opponents for PSU. I wonder how they are going to sort out that mess!
Tech wins a home field shoot out and leap frogs to #2. It is a slight to the Big 10 in general. Be careful what we wish for I guess. Let's take care of business and run the table...Go State
You said Ohio State was not overrated??? How? here is a team that got throttled by the Trojans and barely beat Ohio and Troy. They played ONE good game and luckily it made the PSU win look better since it was the week before.
I think Texas is clearly better than Ohio State but I still have PSU ahead of Tech. Mainly based on PSU winning on the road and playing a much better (and tougher believe it or not) non con schedule.
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I never said that Ohio State was better than Texas. Ohio State was not overrated at No. 9 going into the PSU game. No one was considering them a MNC contender, and you could say, might have given USC a better game with Beanie Wells in the lineup. Texas, at No. 1, was clearly overrated. And as I said, the Texas defense was given too much credit, and many of its flaws were overlooked going into the TT game. Ohio State's defense is head-and-shoulders above the Texas defense, but the perception of both were reversed prior to last week.
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