Penn State moved up two spots to fourth Tuesday night in the second College Football Playoff rankings of the season.
The Nittany Lions (8-1) were projected as the sixth seed in the 12-team playoff and would play 11th-seeded Mississippi in the first round Dec. 20 or 21 at Beaver Stadium in a rematch of last year’s Peach Bowl.
In the initial rankings last week, Penn State was ranked sixth, seeded seventh and projected to face Notre Dame in the first round.
Coming off a 35-6 win over Washington, Penn State was ranked behind No. 1 Oregon (10-0), No. 2 Ohio State (8-1) and No. 3 Texas (8-1) and ahead of No. 5 Indiana (10-0).
BYU (9-0) was sixth in the rankings, followed by Tennessee (8-1), Notre Dame (8-1), Miami (9-1), Alabama (7-2), Mississippi (8-2) and Georgia (7-2).
Boise State (8-1) was ranked 13th, but the Broncos would gain the 12th seed as one of the five highest-ranked conference champions. That means Georgia would not make the playoff.
The four highest-ranked conference champions will be the top four seeded teams and will receive first-round byes no matter what their rankings are.
That means projected Big Ten champ Oregon would be seeded first, Southeastern Conference champ Texas would be second, Big 12 champ BYU would be third and Atlantic Coast Conference champ Miami would be fourth.
As a result, Ohio State would be the fifth seed and would take on Boise State in the first round at Ohio Stadium.
The other first-round matchups would have 10th-seeded Alabama at seventh-seeded Indiana and ninth-seeded Notre Dame at eighth-seeded Tennessee.
The final rankings will be announced Dec. 8, along with the pairings.
The quarterfinals are scheduled for Dec. 31 (Fiesta Bowl) and Jan. 1 (Peach, Rose and Sugar bowls). The semifinals are set for Jan. 9 (Orange Bowl) and Jan. 10 (Cotton Bowl).
The CFP national championship game is scheduled for Jan. 20 in Atlanta.
