Penn State isn't College Football Playoff worthy

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The College Football Playoff is approaching, and the playoff committee announced their top four seeds of the championship tournament this past Sunday.
Undefeated (and defending champion) Alabama leads the way as the No. 1 seed followed by No. 2 Clemson, No. 3 Ohio State and No. 4 Washington.
This is year three for the championship playoff format which replaced the controversial Bowl Championship Series. The unfortunate problem is that the playoff system has its own controversy.
Four teams get a chance to play for the national championship, and the teams on the outside looking in spend a few days publicly voicing their displeasure with the bracket.
The committee's job is to get the four best teams in college football, and it is a difficult job. Imagine it as the sports equivalent of the Bachelor's (or Bachelorette's) final episodes to narrow it down to the last one standing.
Alabama has proven to be the best in the nation despite what many would say has been a down year for the Southeastern Conference.
Eight of their 13 victories were against top-20 ranked opponents with four of them on the road. Alabama's margin of victory was 24.3 points in those eight wins.
The Crimson Tide arguably have the best defense in the country. Only two other teams allowed fewer yards, and none gave up fewer points.
Offensively, Alabama is 15th in total yards and 13th in points scored.
Freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts is a player to watch, but the defense steals the show and is led by senior lineman Jonathan Allen.
Head coach Nick Saban has the cream of the crop.

Rich Barnes / USA Today Sports

The "snub" that got the Internet buzzing involved Penn State.
Their résumé had many arguing a playoff spot in their favor, but to reiterate the committee must select four of the best teams. Penn State is not one of them.
Head coach James Franklin led this team to a Big 10 conference championship, but they are certainly not one of the four best teams in the country right now (and never have been at any point of this season).
If this were the Bachelor, Penn State would be the contestant that slipped through the cracks just because they were at the right place at the right time. That is hardly a quality of a champion -- much less a championship contender.
But to be fair, let's review said résumé. Penn State is 11-2, a power-5 conference champion and have notable wins over Ohio State and Wisconsin (Big 10 championship game).
Penn State's flaws are much more noticeable than their accomplishments though.
Their 42-39 loss to unranked Pitt is a big blemish, and losing to Michigan by 39 points is even worse. Historically, no team with a 30+ point loss has competed for a national championship.
Plus, the Nittany Lions only rank 25th in points scored and are not even in the top 30 for total offense, total defense and points allowed.
Penn State was so under the radar, it's as if they wore Harry Potter's cloak of invisibility.

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At least Alabama has Hurts to go with Saban.
Clemson has Heisman hopeful Deshaun Watson (pictured above) and head coach Dabo Swinney.
Ohio State has J.T. Barrett and head coach Urban Meyer with his multiple championships.
And even Washington has a Heisman candidate of their own in Jake Browning paired with an offensively-creative head coach Chris Peterson (formerly of Boise State).
Penn State lacks a current level of relevant prestige that their respective counterparts have.
When you look at notable wins, Clemson (the Atlantic Coast Conference champions) has three over ranked opponents to Penn State's two. Ohio State and Washington (Pac-12 champions) each have four.
Margin of victory can also be used to indicate which teams stand above the rest.
Ohio State's four quality wins (Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Michigan) were by an average of 22.5 points. Washington beat four top-five Pac-12 teams (Stanford, Utah, Washington State and Colorado) -- all ranked -- by an average of 26 points.
Penn State's margin of victory from their 11 wins was 19.5 points. Not impressive by any stretch.
Even Michigan has more quality wins (Colorado, Penn State and Wisconsin) with a 34.6 point margin of victory.
And that's just comparing the wins.

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Ohio State's one loss was on the road against the eventual conference champions, and was only by three points.
Clemson's home loss to Pitt was a devastating one at the time -- and looks bad to a certain degree -- but was only by one point.
Washington lost at home by 13 to a ranked USC, but that loss has a little value since some experts recently have touted the Trojans as better than their record and rank indicate.
Clemson, Ohio State and Washington's single losses look better than the two losses Penn State has.
And Michigan's two losses were both one-possession games, and both were on the road.
I would even give the tiebreaker to Michigan because at least the loss to Iowa is more acceptable than Penn State's loss to Pitt. Iowa was an preseason favorite to contend for the Big 10, but hardly anybody ever expects Pitt to win their conference.
In the end, the four teams in the tournament (and arguably Michigan) check off more boxes than Penn State does -- especially using the eye test.
Penn State just doesn't have enough to be that finalist so no Bachelor rose for them, but they are smelling Pasadena roses at least.
Nonetheless, the committee did what is expected of them; get the four best teams in the College Football Playoff.

*all stats were found at espn.go.com and foxsports.com.