Why The Big Deal About the Quality of Penn State's Losses?

Penn State lost two games in September. Why are people talking like Penn State would get blown out by Michigan if the two teams played today? As for the Pittsburgh loss, Pittsburgh went on to beat Clemson at Clemson. Pittsburgh defeated two Power 5 conference champions. Penn State lost in a road game the second week of the season. Clemson's November loss at home is much worse.

The most valid arguments against Penn State IMO are that they have one less top 10 win than Ohio State and one more loss. Those are two indisputable facts. However, the rankings have been a little silly. Wisconsin jumped from unranked to #10 after beating an overrated LSU team. Three weeks later Wisconsin beat an overranked Michigan State team. Wisconsin doesn't have a single impressive win.

On that note, Oklahoma doesn't have an impressive win either and played in the weakest Power 5 conference this season. That was early in the season. Oklahoma also lost in September, and I'm not sure that Ohio State would blow them out if they played now given how shaky Ohio State has looked lately. Thus the way I see it, Penn State and Ohio State only have one win over a team worthy of a top 10 ranking apiece. It just so happens that Penn State's is over Ohio State.

Ohio State blew a 14 point 4th quarter lead to a 17 point underdog and did not win their division. It's also not fair that Ohio State got an extra week to recover and not have to risk injury. Look at how many Alabama defenders got hurt in the SEC Championship game. One extra game can result in injuries that drastically change the outcome of a team's postseason.

I'm not convinced that Ohio State would beat Penn State if they played on a neutral field today, and I don't think Ohio State looked like one of the 4 best teams in the country in their last two games. Ultimately, we don't have any influence over the committee's decision tomorrow, but I don't see great reasons to leave Penn State out when they lost to two good teams in September, are playing good football right now, and won their conference. If Ohio State is in, it will send the message that brand name recognition is more valuable than a team winning its division or conference. Penn State did everything they needed to do on the field in order to win their conference. Ohio State did not.

I won't lose any sleep over the final rankings tomorrow, but I'm really interested in knowing why people are making such a big deal out who Penn State lost to and how. Michigan and Ohio State were playing much better football earlier in the year than now. Penn State has earned the right to call themselves the Big Ten's best team.