Penn State and Pitt are both making inroads in the SB Nation BlogPoll Top 25, SB Nation’s weekly college football ranking. Both are in the “others receiving votes” category. While Pitt’s game against an unranked UConn team this Thursday is probably unlikely to make much of a difference, Penn State has a very clear path into next week’s top 25 if it can pull off an upset against Ohio State. The Buckeyes are ranked ninth in the poll.
Other Big Ten teams in the poll include Wisconsin (No. 7), Michigan State (No. 11), and Iowa (No. 13). Penn State is currently a game and a half behind the Spartans and a game behind OSU, Wisconsin and Iowa in the Big Ten standings. A win this week obviously won’t get them to the top, but it would help their national standing quite a bit – both their games against ranked teams so far (Alabama and Iowa) have resulted in losses, and a win against a top team would probably convince many of the voters that despite Penn State’s uneven season so far, there’s something in there.