CFP Committee chair Rob Mullens explains decision to drop Minnesota behind Penn State on latest rankings

Minnesota’s win over Penn State was not enough to keep the Gophers ahead of the Nittany Lions on the latest College Football Playoff Rankings.

The latest rankings were unveiled Tuesday evening after a wild weekend of football. Though Minnesota did suffer its first loss of the season to Iowa, the Gophers slid just two spots to No. 10. However, Penn State, a team Minnesota recently beat, hopped ahead of the Gophers to No. 8.

RELATED: College Football Playoff Rankings: Ohio State, Penn State, Minnesota land in top 10, 6 B1G teams ranked in top 25

Why did Minnesota slide behind a team it has a head-to-head victory over? CFP Committee chair Rob Mullens explained the decision:

“Well we certainly had a lot of discussion and if you’re in the room there’s a lot of things that we consider,” explained Mullens. “Head to head is one piece, they also had a conference loss to Iowa, an opponent who Penn State beat. And then you look at Penn State’s resume and the win against Michigan is impressive, and they have the best non-conference win, beating a 7-3 Pittsburgh team.”

Kirk Herbstreit went on to discuss that rationale. He admitted the Committee was in a difficult spot debating between the two teams and it was good to see some of their rationale explained:

“I thought his answer not only told you a lot about those two teams, but how the committee evaluates things,” said Herbstreit. “They were put in a tough spot, where Penn State lost to Minnesota just a couple of weeks ago, and then you have the rankings today with Minnesota losing last weekend to Iowa and now Penn State is ahead of them. He mentioned that the head to head is one component.”

Obviously, this will likely get sorted out with Penn State playing Ohio State this weekend and Minnesota playing Wisconsin next weekend. For now, which team would you have ranked higher?