Penn State Football: Week 10 Review and Week 11 Preview

Week 10 Review

Penn State did not play last week, as they used their bye week to get healthy and enjoy their huge victory over Ohio State last week.

In my article last week, I previewed the chances of Penn State making the national championship.  This assumes that the Nittany Lions will win their remaining three games.

Last week the Lions stood at No. 3 in the BCS standings, behind only Texas and Alabama.  Needing to only move ahead of one of these teams to be in position for the national championship, I predicted that both Texas and Alabama would lose before the end of the season

Last week Texas fulfilled their half of my prophecy by falling to Texas Tech in a thrilling night game on national television.  But something unforeseen happened in the BCS standings for this week.

The Longhorns dropped below the Nittany Lions in the newest BCS rankings, but still Penn State stood at No. 3.  This is because Texas Tech vaulted ahead of PSU up to the No. 2 ranking after their victory over Texas.

I actually began to worry about this a little bit during the first half of the game, when Texas Tech was beating Texas rather handily.  I decided that if Texas Tech won by a convincing margin over Texas, then they probably would jump Penn State in the rankings

But Texas Tech did not win by a convincing margin.  They squandered their 22-6 halftime lead and had to score a touchdown with one second remaining to win the game, at home, against the Longhorns. 

So what’s the big deal?  Texas Tech is undefeated and just defeated the previous team that was ranked No. 1.  The jump is certainly well explained, but I don’t think it accurately reflects the normal movement in the BCS rankings over the years.  Teams at the very top of the rankings usually only slide down if they lose.

But I can accept rewarding Texas Tech for this week, especially since Penn State didn’t play.  My only question then is, how does Alabama remain ahead of Texas Tech?

Alabama played Arkansas State, a very mediocre small-conference team, and defeated them rather unimpressively.  The biggest argument against Penn State that I have heard is their weak schedule.  So then how is beating Arkansas State significantly better than having a bye week

In the end, none of this SHOULD matter.  Alabama should still lose a game, as I predicted last week.  Texas Tech has arguably the toughest remaining schedule in all of College Football and will have many chances to lose.  So Penn State will, in all likelihood, be able to move ahead of at least one of these two teams.

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