STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- While the Nittany Lions can only watch and wait ahead of learning their bowl fate on Sunday, they did move up one spot in the last set of College Football Playoff rankings that were released ahead of championship weekend.
Coming in at No. 9 after sitting at No. 10 for the previous two weeks, the Lions' list of bowl games is narrowed down. While the Cotton Bowl still seems to be the frontrunner, there's still a solid shot at a trip to the Fiesta Bowl, largely because College Football Playoff committee chairman Kirby Hocutt said Tuesday night recent bowl matchups won't be taken off the table. That means a Penn State vs. USC rematch of last years Rose Bowl could be in the cards should it all line up for the Fiesta.
"If there was a rematch from last year, we may try to discuss it, but I wouldn't say that we would not -- that we would automatically steer away from a rematch that may have occurred in the last few years," Hocutt said on a teleconference Tuesday. "We would not want a rematch from this regular season."
However, the possibility of Penn State in the Cotton Bowl, where the Lions could play TCU in Dallas on Dec. 29, is still the top potential landing spot with the majority of projections ranging from Sports Illustrated to CBS Sports, ESPN.com and SB Nation all pointing that direction.
Interestingly enough, Hocutt said the teams ranked fifth though eight -- as in Alabama through Ohio State -- don't have much separating them. The Buckeyes play No. 4 Wisconsin on Saturday in Indianapolis and Ohio State also has two teams ahead of them who are guaranteed to lose this weekend (loser of ACC title game, loser of SEC title game).
How does the committee view the teams bunched up from No. 8 to 11?
"Penn State has a quality resume, their two losses (were) on the road by a total of four points," Hocutt said. "Southern California is a team that's struggled with a significant number of injuries through the season. As they got healthy the second half of the season, they played better and were really impressive to the Selection Committee.
"TCU, we've been impressed with TCU, especially on the defensive side of the ball all year," he continued. "The selection committee has talked at length about how impressed we've been with them on the defensive side of the ball, in the red zone especially. We've talked about TCU's team speed being a strength of theirs. Again, very challenging discussion and conversation, but at the end of the day, the Selection Committee believes that we got the sequencing of teams correct between 8 and 11 this week."
While Penn State failed to make the Playoff after winning the Big Ten title game last season, the value of the conference championship is something that will be discussed at length again this weekend. Hocutt reiterated that the selection committee looks at four criteria when ranking comparable teams: Conference championship, strength of schedule, head-to-head matchups if they happened and outcomes against common opponents.
"That being said, obviously when we're comparing like teams, that conference championship designation is very important," Hocutt said.
Surely that will ruffle some feathers with Penn State fans after the Lions weren't seen comparable to Ohio State last season. The Lions moved from No. 8 to No. 5 last season on bowl selection day while Ohio State stayed at No. 2.
Here's how the latest rankings match up when looking ahead to the conference championship games this weekend:
1. Clemson (11-1), vs. Miami ACC in title game
2. Auburn (10-2), vs. Georgia SEC in title game
3. Oklahoma (11-1), vs TCU in Big 12 title game
4. Wisconsin (12-0), vs. Ohio State in Big Ten title game
5. Alabama (11-1), No game this week
6. Georgia (11-1), vs. Auburn in SEC title game
7. Miami (10-1), vs. Clemson in ACC title game
8. Ohio State (10-2), vs. Wisconsin in Big Ten title game
9. Penn State (10-2), No game this week
10. USC (10-2), vs. Stanford in Pac-12 title game
11. TCU (10-2), vs. Oklahoma in Big 12 title game
12. Stanford (9-3), vs. USC in Pac-12 title game
The College Football Playoff selection show airs Sunday at noon on ESPN.