College Football Playoff: Easy draw for Penn State? Boise State may feel the same

Broncos will face No. 6 Penn State or No. 11 SMU in Fiesta Bowl

Boise State Broncos running back Ashton Jeanty is interviewed by Fox Sports reporter Allison Williams. / Brian Losness-Imagn Images

When the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff bracket was unveiled Sunday, several media members felt that No. 6 Penn State received a more favorable draw than No. 1 Oregon.

The Nittany Lions (11-2), who fell to Oregon (13-0) 45-37 in Saturday’s Big Ten Championship, were given a first-round matchup with No. 11 SMU (11-2). The winner of that game advances to face No. 3 Boise State (12-1) in the Fiesta Bowl on Dec. 31. 

Penn State is favored by 7.5 points over SMU, which mounted a furious rally in the ACC Championship before eventually succumbing to Clemson. The game will be played at Penn State’s Beaver Stadium. 

If the Nittany Lions advance to the quarterfinals, they would also be a sizable favorite against Boise State and Heisman Trophy contender Ashton Jeanty at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

Oregon’s prize for earning the No. 1 overall seed will be a Rose Bowl matchup with No. 9 Tennessee (10-2) or No. 8 Ohio State (10-2). The Buckeyes and Ducks met on Oct. 12 at Autzen Stadium with Oregon holding on for a 32-31 victory.

ESPN’s Football Power Index has Ohio State ranked third, Oregon sixth, Tennessee seventh, Penn State ninth, SMU 13th and Boise State all the way down at No. 25. 

According to CBS Sports’ Josh Pate, Penn State has a “waterslide in front of them to the semifinals.”

“Penn State is in the most advantaged position of anyone who made this playoff,” Pate said. “We’re getting numbers out right now. They are going to host a team from Dallas in 15-degree weather. … If they won that, they would go on to play a Boise State team … both of these teams they out-roster, by the way. They would go on to face the Boise team that got the first-round bye. Guess which team would be nearly favored by two touchdowns there? Cause it’s not the team with the first-round bye.”

Pate called the format of the new College Football Playoff “pathetic.”  

The five highest-ranked conference champions by the 13-person committee earned automatic bids to the playoff. The top four conference champions — Oregon, Georgia, Boise State and Arizona State — got first-round byes.

“Since you have an auto-bye process in the format, you end up semi-penalizing your Big Ten Championship Game winner in Oregon,” Pate said. 

The perceived favorable draw could be a blessing and a curse for Penn State coach James Franklin, who is 99-41 overall in his 11 seasons with the Nittany Lions but holds a 3-19 career record against top-10 opponents. 

Penn State is 1-2 against ranked teams this season with the lone victory coming against No. 20 Illinois. Boise State has a long history of slaying giants and is 3-0 all-time in the Fiesta Bowl. 

The Nittany Lions are probably happy to draw SMU and Boise State, but the Broncos certainly aren’t upset with the bracket, either. 

“I think about the pressure on James Franklin,” Pate said. “Because for so long, it’s been ‘you can’t win the big game, you can’t win the big game.’ OK, well they competed in the big game against Oregon yesterday. They came up short, but now they’re in a position where they are in the playoff anyway. It’s expanded, that’s why they’re in. But they’re in the playoff. If you made the playoff bracket for yourself, and you were Penn State, how would you set it up any differently than it is right now?”

MORE BOISE STATE NEWS & ANALYSIS

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• What Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty, Spencer Danielson said after clinching College Football Playoff berth

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