Despite having five teams ranking in the top 12 spots, ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit was only really surprised one team’s position from the B1G.

When the former Ohio State quarterback was asked about Penn State being ranked No. 12 on Tuesday evening he said

That’s impressive, a shocker to me.

The Nittany Lions were boosted by a big win two weeks ago against Ohio State. Last Saturday, PSU blew out Purdue by a final score of 62-24.

Herbstreit also offered some other thoughts after the rankings came out on Tuesday, though most of them didn’t revolve around the B1G. He did have this to say about the conference and owning nearly half of the top 12 spots and four teams in the top 10:

Think about where the B1G was just a few years ago.

When he was asked about what the biggest takeaway was:

The real discussion will be about 4, 5, and 6.

Ohio State currently sits at No. 6 in the rankings and still has Michigan on the schedule with a chance to boost its resume even more. The Wolverines were ranked at No. 3 on Tuesday night.

When he was asked if there were any dark horses to steal a spot outside the top 10:

I think the lowest I would go is Florida at No. 11.

Based on that, Herbstreit still believes that – aside from Michigan and Ohio State – Wisconsin and Nebraska still have legitimate shots to reach the four-team playoff but doesn’t think Penn State really has a shot to steal one of the bids at the end of the year.

We’ll see if anything drastically changes next week.