Penn State Gets No Love From Computers

The Nittany Lions’ loss to Iowa is not getting much respect around college football. Penn State ranks No. 13 in the first BCS poll as the sixth-highest one-loss team.

Penn State blog Black Shoe Diaries notes that the Nittany Lions’ weak strength of schedule is holding them back in the computer rankings:

Stumbles by some of the top teams bumped Penn State up to 11th in both the Coaches’ and Harris poll, but the team was roughed up by the computers and end up with a final BCS rank of 13.

The SOS is absolutely brutal from the machines, and it shows in the rankings they spit out:

A&H 14
Bill. 16
Colley 15
Massey 16
Sagarin NR
Wolfe 25
Average 17

That average of 17 is below two-loss teams Virginia Tech, Wisconsin and Arizona and one-loss Utah.

The Nittany Lions only have themselves to blame for the weak strength of schedule hurting their BCS ranking. When Syracuse is the highlight of your out of conference schedule, don’t expect the computers to help you out very much.

Even with the currently high BCS ranking, the outlook from BSD remains bleak for the rest of the season:

For you dreamers, Penn State is still mostly behind the 8-ball after that loss to Iowa. A Big Ten title means Iowa has to somehow lose to both Michigan State and Ohio State.

Considering the SEC bloc at the top and Big Ten computer hate, an MNC hope is mostly for the insane.

With Ohio State’s face-plant this week, the realistic ceiling is probably a BCS game against Miami in the Orange Bowl, but there is still an awful lot to improve upon before you can consider that in any way likely.