The dominoes are falling. Plenty of expected College Football Playoff contenders have run off the road this season, but it felt as if the first seismic shift came Saturday night in State College, Pa. Penn State, in its signature victory of the post-Joe Paterno era, used a 17-0 fourth-quarter blitz to stun No. 2 Ohio State 24-21, the winning points coming on a blocked field goal return for a touchdown. Ain’t college football great? The Nittany Lions completed eight passes all game and still beat the second-ranked team in the nation. Meanwhile, Texas Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes II had an FBS record 819 total yards … and his team lost 66-59 to Oklahoma. The number of unbeaten teams from Power Five Conference schools dropped from nine to seven on Saturday, as the Buckeyes and Texas A&M fell. But while the Aggies are essentially boxed out in the SEC West by their loss to No. 1 Alabama, the needle didn’t actually move much on Ohio State’s playoff probabilities. All that jumping around from the white-clad crowd in Happy Valley only seemed like an earthquake-like event. It’s too strong to say Ohio State still controls its own playoff destiny, but a playoff…
Continue Reading: Ohio State upset shakes up College Football Playoff dynamic
