James Franklin and the Penn State Nittany Lions have fallen on hard times. After a 5-0 start to the season, they’ve lost 3 straight games, including a 9 overtime game against Illinois.

So, when the first College Football Playoff rankings came out on Tuesday, the Nittany Lions weren’t in the top 25.

When asked about the rankings, Franklin said life isn’t a fair thing (via On3 Sports):

“No, it’s not fair,” Franklin said. “Life is not fair.”

Franklin seemed to call out the SEC for playing FCS opponents and only having 8 league games, saying the CFP rankings won’t be fair until conferences have some uniform schedules:

“I’ve brought up some things in the past that I believe in, and a lot of people that have been here for a while have heard this multiple times, but I think the first thing you have to do – if you’re not going to have a true playoff system – the first thing you have to do is make sure everybody is playing under the same model,” Franklin said.

“How can you have some conferences that play FCS opponents and other conferences that don’t? How can you have some conferences that are playing nine conference games and others playing eight? It’s very, very challenging in terms of if you get a bunch of people in the room – and we all have biases, right? – and they’re trying to decide who are the best players. Some of it is data, but some of it is just your personal preference, right? How can you do that when not everyone is playing the same number of games in a similar situation?”

Of course, if Penn State hadn’t lost 3 straight games, perhaps it would be in the top 25. We’ll see if the Nittany Lions can get back on track this weekend at Maryland.