Warde Manuel explains why Penn State stayed ahead of Notre Dame in fourth College Football Playoff rankings
Heading into Tuesday’s College Football Playoff rankings reveal, some wondered if Notre Dame and Penn State could flip spots. The Fighting Irish are coming off another dominating win while the Nittany Lions snuck away with a victory over Minnesota to stay in the Big Ten race.
However, the committee kept the two teams as they were last week. Penn State came in ahead of Notre Dame, and chairman Warde Manuel explained that decision.
Manuel said that was a big point of conversation within the committee room. Ultimately, Penn State’s ranked wins – over Ohio State and Illinois – proved to be the separator since they’re still in the Top 25 this week.
“There was a lot of discussion about those teams and how they had performed,” Manuel said. “Penn State’s only loss is to the No. 2 team in the country. They have a win over No. 23 Illinois. Notre Dame has a win now over No. 20 Texas A&M as of today [and] Army is not in the rankings. Notre Dame’s loss was to Northern Illinois at the beginning of the year, but they won nine straight games in pretty dominant fashion since then. So from our standpoint, resumes are pretty close in terms of how we see them, obviously with them ranked 4 and 5.
“They both have games this week that we will watch. Penn State plays Maryland, I believe, and Notre Dame plays USC. So we’ll be watching how they perform, and we will assess when we get together [and] start assessing when we get together on Monday to look at what’s transpired over the weekend.”
Notre Dame’s loss to Northern Illinois was one of the biggest surprises of the season, but the Fighting Irish have responded well. They’ve rattled off nine straight wins since, including last week’s 49-14 win over Army. That marks the fifth straight win by multiple scores since a 31-24 win over Louisville.
As for Penn State, the only blemish on its resume is the Ohio State loss. The Nittany Lions’ win over Illinois is also aging well as the Fighting Illini stay in the College Football Playoff rankings.
But this week could be important in the race between Penn State and Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish take on USC, giving them a common opponent for the committee to discuss.
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