STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Penn State climbed back into the top-10 in this week's set of College Football Playoff rankings, this time checking in at No. 10.
The Nittany Lions were at No. 14 in last week's rankings and after defeating Rutgers -- but largely because of the crazy college football landscape after what transpired elsewhere last weekend -- Penn State came in one spot behind Ohio State. Sitting at 8-2, the Nittany Lions are poised to go 10-2 should they beat Nebraska this weekend and then go on the road to Maryland next weekend and do the same, keeping the Lions well in the mix for a shot at a New Year's Six game.
With Georgia's loss last week, Alabama checked in at No. 1, Clemson at No. 2, Miami at No. 3 and Oklahoma at No. 4. The undefeated Wisconsin Badgers are at No. 5, while Auburn moved all the way up to No. 6.
Penn State's bowl projections at this point vary from the Peach bowl, to the Citrus, Cotton or Outback bowl. Should Wisconsin with the Big Ten and also get into the College Football Playoff, that would help the Lions get in the New Year's Six mix. For now, one of the most interesting projections comes from Jerry Palm of CBS Sports, where he projects the Lions to the Cotton bowl where they'd play Notre Dame.
Now, that certainly would be a big-time game with two huge, traditional fan bases and that surely is one many college football fans would want to see. Plus, former Penn State verbal commit Brandon Wimbush is the quarterback for the Fighting Irish, so that would be an interesting angle, too.
The completed top-25 this week:
1. Alabama
2. Clemson
3. Miami
4. Oklahoma
5. Wisconsin
6. Auburn
7. Georgia
8. Notre Dame
9. Ohio State
10. Penn State
11. USC
12. TCU
13. Oklahoma State
14. Washington State
15. UCF
16. Mississippi State
17. Michigan State
18. Washington
19. NC State
20. LSU
21. Memphis
22. Stanford
23. Northwestern
24. Michigan
25. Boise State