Nittany Lions No. 11 in BCS Standings; Rise to Top 10 in AP and Coaches Polls

by jebatzel on Nov 30, 2009 8:06 AM EST

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Penn State has moved up to No. 11 in the latest Bowl Championship Series standings, announced today by the National Football Foundation.

The Nittany Lions also rose No. 9 in the USA Today Coaches poll and No. 10 in the Associated Press poll.

The Nittany Lions are one of three Big Ten squads ranked in the top 11 of the BCS standings. Ohio State is No. 8 and Iowa is No. 9.

The final BCS standings will be announced on Sunday, Dec. 6 on Fox, along with all the bowl selections.

Penn State is ranked in the Top 10 nationally in five of the six primary defensive categories (Top 20 in all six) and leads the nation in Red Zone defense (65.4 pct., 17 of 26).

According to the latest NCAA statistics, the Nittany Lions are No. 4 nationally in scoring defense (11.8 ppg), No. 8 in total defense (277.0 ypg), No. 10 in rushing defense (93.9 ypg and No. 19 in pass defense (183.2 ypg). Penn State also is No. 7 in tackles for losses per game (99, 8.25 avg.) and No. 8 in sacks (35, 2.9 avg.).

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EPSN perdicts Capital One (SEC vs. Big Ten) Penn State vs. LSU

If we don’t get Orange bowl then would this be a lot worse?

http://espn.go.com/college-football/bowls/projections?season=2009&week=13

by jebatzel on Nov 30, 2009 8:33 AM EST reply actions

I think we're in a good situation no matter what

by speedomike on Nov 30, 2009 8:54 AM EST up reply actions

I'd still like the prestige of a BCS bowl

But playing LSU over Boise is also a big consolation prize if we don’t land in the BCS.

"We hugged as grown men do. It was a great moment. Then, it was business as usual." -- LJ Sr.

by millzners on Nov 30, 2009 9:27 AM EST reply actions

Sagarin Rating

Looks like we dropped out Sagarin’s top 25 (which I think we just snuck into last week). I imagine this has to do with the way these statistical rankings work, in that we lost to the teams above us, while beating all the teams who were below us, but unfortunately the teams below us were WAY below us, and so the statistics just know that we’re worse than 15 (Iowa) and 22 (OSU) but better than 67 (Michigan State). Plus it probably doesn’t help much that Iowa and OSU didn’t perform too will in the Sagarin ELO_CHESS rating, either.

by The JuggerNitt on Nov 30, 2009 1:00 PM EST reply actions

Temple

I think Temple’s lost killed us. And that’s not to say anything bad on them – they’ve had one hell of a season and they shouldn’t have been the team that was buoying our ranking. But as it is, they were, and so their loss killed their ranking, which in turn killed our ranking.

"In the beginning the Universe was created.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."

by IcersGuy on Nov 30, 2009 2:25 PM EST up reply actions