You take wins however you can get them in football. But when it comes to college football, you have to win with authority. This isn’t a league made up of brackets based off of ranks. While conference play seems pretty fair at the end of the year, it takes convincing voters around the NCAA to make it past some standard bowl game and get into the playoffs.
Heading into the 2019 college football season, many wouldn’t consider Penn State football to be a potential playoff team. With all of their youth on board — especially at the quarterback position, nobody sees them as a team that is truly ready to win big now.