Penn State College Football Playoff Hopes Declared Dead After Second Loss

The Penn State Nittany Lions were given a gift by the Big Ten to make the College Football Playoff under first-year head coach Matt Campbell. 

The Nittany Lions don't have to play Ohio State, Oregon, or Indiana. 

That schedule is part of the reason why Associated Press voters pushed Penn State up to No. 13 before the loss to Wisconsin. PSU hadn't done anything to deserve being ranked up to that point, earning three wins against non-Power 4 teams. 

Entering the second week of October, Penn State and its 24 transfers from Big 12 program Iowa State have yet to beat a Power 4 team. The Nittany Lions are 0-2 in Big Ten play. 

During "Josh Pate's College Football Show" on Sunday, the host noted that PSU has been outscored 58-16 since the Nittany Lions had a 17-0 lead on the Badgers. He argued their hopes of making the CFP have "gone up in smoke" after the loss to Northwestern.

Things could get even more ugly for Penn State in October. PSU will host No. 19 USC on Saturday. The Trojans have underwhelmed this season, but they should have enough talent to beat Penn State by a few touchdowns.

Then PSU will travel to play Michigan on Oct. 17. While the Wolverines have dropped out of the ranking amidst a 3-2 start (they should be 2-3, but a controversial call allowed Michigan to escape Week 1 with a win over Western Michigan).

Frankly, Penn State could struggle to make a bowl game. Minnesota and Washington will be tough games for the Nittany Lions. After losses to Northwestern and Wisconsin, two teams that didn't get a lot of credit before the season based on last year's results, nothing looks easy for PSU, including Rutgers and Maryland.

Before the season, Campbell said he wanted to use this season to build his culture. That could be a painful process for the Nittany Lions, because the wins probably won't be there for this team. He's going to have to find some buy-in with a subpar record.

Penn State has to remember that Campbell was brought in under less than ideal conditions. Despite firing James Franklin in October, Campbell wasn't hired until December when other coaches, including Franklin at Virginia Tech, had a chance to jump on landing recruits for this season.

The results on the field reflect that. The CFP is dead, but Campbell must avoid a bad season sliding into something worse next year.