The Indiana Hoosiers may have snuck by the Penn State Nittany Lions 27-24 at Beaver Stadium on Saturday, but the voters in the various college football polls may not allow IU to escape State College, PA, without some consequences.
Saturday Blitz's Nicholas Rome believes the TAMU Aggies' 38-17 win over the Missouri Tigers should propel the 12th Man to the No. 2 overall spot in the country for the College Football Playoff rankings, AP Top 25, and Coaches Poll.
"The Indiana Hoosiers struggled with Penn State to the point that the Hoosiers were in a 4-point hole with just under 2 minutes remaining. Fernando Mendoza led the Hoosiers on a game-winning drive, finding Omar Cooper Jr on one of the best catches of the season, giving Mendoza a Heisman moment. The way Indiana struggled may affect how the committee views them, but this team is still one of the top teams in America," Rome wrote.
"Mike Elko's team came off the bye week and went on the road, handling a Top 25 Missouri team with ease. The Aggies' rushing attack wore down Missouri, picking up 6.2 yards per carry for 243 yards and 3 touchdowns while Marcel Reed threw for 2 scores. When the first set of Playoff rankings was unveiled, Texas A&M could've been the top-ranked team, and after they looked better than Indiana this weekend, the two should trade places."
The Ohio State Buckeyes are expected to remain No. 1 after a 34-10 win over the Purdue Boilermakers on the road. There may be nothing TAMU can do to usurp OSU if the Buckeyes win out the rest of the way.
Right behind Ohio State, TAMU, and Indiana is expected to be the Alabama Crimson Tide, who handled the LSU Tigers 20-9 at Bryant-Denny Stadium. If there are no unbeatens left after championship weekend, Alabama is your likely No. 1 team because of its strength of schedule.
We'll see how the top of the sport looks after the regular season's final three weeks and conference championship weekend, with OSU playing the UCLA Bruins, Rutgers Scarlet Knights, and Michigan Wolverines, IU having a cakewalk to the Big Ten Championship with the Wisconsin Badgers and Boilermakers, TAMU having the South Carolina Gamecocks, Samford Bulldogs, and Texas Longhorns left, and Alabama having the Oklahoma Sooners, Eastern Illinois Panthers, and the Iron Bowl at Jordan-Hare Stadium against the Auburn Tigers.
There's room for chaos over the next few weeks, as there always is in college football.