Penn State Football stayed at No. 11 in this week’s College Football Playoff rankings.

This was not good for the Nittany Lions‘ hopes of potentially making a New Year’s Six Bowl game, as they are still outside of the Top-10 and the bowl tie-ins will make things difficult for James Franklin‘s team.

Notable rankings:

The Top 4 stayed put this week, but LSU moved up to No. 5 and USC up to No. 6.

The Trojans most likely control their own destiny to make the Playoff, if they can defeat No. 15 Notre Dame this week and potentially No. 9 Oregon in the Pac 12 championship game.

Clemson stayed at No. 8 this week behind Alabama putting them in a difficult position to try and reach the playoff without a large amount of chaos.

Tennessee only fell 5 spots to No. 10 despite, getting blown out by a bad South Carolina team over the weekend.

Many Penn State Football fans wondered if the Nittany Lions would jump the Volunteers. That would have put Penn State in a secure position to make a NY6 bowl game.

Other Notable risers included Washington up 4 spots to No. 13, Notre Dame up 3 to No. 15, and Florida State up 3 to No. 16. Utah fell 4 spots to #14 after their loss to Oregon. UNC dropped 4 spots to #17 after their loss to Georgia Tech, ending their CFP hopes. There were two new teams in the rankings this week with No. 23 Texas and No. 25 Louisville.

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What will it take for Penn State Football to move up in the poll?

Penn State Football will need to obviously win against the Spartans on Saturday first and foremost.

Likewise, the Nittany Lions will need help from either Vanderbilt or Auburn pulling off an upset to knock down one of the 4 SEC teams.

Fans will also need to be rooting for Notre Dame to knock USC out of playoff contention and set up a NY6 elimination game with Oregon.

We will have a clearer picture after this week just how realistic the chance to make a NY6 is going into conference championship week. If Ohio State and Michigan both make the Playoff, that would set up a Rose Bowl for Penn State Football, and might be the most likely NY6 based off the current rankings.  

Week 13 Key Matchups:

#19 Tulane @ #24 Cincinnati                  FRI 12:00pm/ABC

#3 Michigan @ #2 Ohio State                  12:00pm/FOX

#9 Oregon @ #21 Oregon State              3:30pm/ABC

#15 Notre Dame @ #6 USC                    7:30pm/ABC

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