Panel’s playoff picks came down to Washington vs. Penn State

If the two major college football sites are correct in predicting the top four schools, they are going to be the Alabama Crimson Tide, Clemson Tigers, Ohio State Buckeyes, and Washington Huskies. Washington might have lost that game to USC, but it completed its 12-victory season with a complete throttling of Colorado in the conference title game.

So much for any form of bogus selection criteria offered up by the College Football Playoff. They were 21-point underdogs against Ohio State on October 23 and trailed that game, 21-7, before rallying for a 24-21 victory. The Buckeyes dominated just about every team they played against this year, with their only loss coming on a blocked field goal against Penn State. Ohio State routed Oklahoma in Norman, edged Wisconsin at Camp Randall and annihilated Nebraska at The Shoe before taking down the Maize and Blue.

As good as the Badgers defense had been this season, the secondary played their worst game of the season, looking invisible on some of Penn State’s long pass plays. “I would tell you that Penn State significantly elevated themselves in our conversation after their performance last night”.

Alabama team members celebrate after the Southeastern Conference championship NCAA college football … All four of the teams invited to the playoff suffered one loss or less. Penn State’s defense will have its own hands full against USC’s offense, which is dotted with NFL-caliber talent at almost every position – including top receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, 1,000-yard tailback Ronald Jones II and a powerful offensive line.

Head coach James Franklin, who was believed by many to be on the hot season after his team’s 2-2 start, managed a remarkable turnaround.

Saban and Alabama will be trying to win their fifth national championship in eight seasons, and second straight. Add in two more wins over AP top-25 teams Iowa and Temple and the fact that both losses came against top-25 teams in MI and Pittsburgh, and that’s a compelling case.

Penn State (11-2) didn’t get the result it wanted, but it is part of that conversation with the 1-2 punch of Ohio State (11-1) and MI (10-2) at the top of the Big Ten East Division.

And it’s not like there are four unbeaten teams plowing through power conferences.

Before the Big Ten championship, there was some talk of the Badgers appearing in the CFP.

The Badgers had one last chance to try to forge a tie and send the game to overtime. The Wildcats had several embarrassing losses but managed five conference wins.

If Penn State does not make the playoff, they’ll be headed to the Rose Bowl as Big Ten champions. It was just weeks into this season when Penn State stood at 2-2 after a 39-point loss at MI and the rumblings about Franklin’s job security were getting louder than ever. That victory clearly meant nothing to the committee in bypassing the Big Ten champion – and both East (Penn State) and West (Wisconsin) Division champs – in favor of the Buckeyes.

The final regular-season Associated Press poll came out Sunday morning several hours before the College Football Playoff rankings and the two ended up with the same top four but in slightly different order.

Penn State: Will eagerly wait to see who is next on the schedule.

The truth is USC was down, although the Trojans played better later in the season.