Warde Manuel and the College Football Playoff committee dropped their initial CFP rankings for the first installment of the 12-team format Tuesday night. Undefeated Oregon leads the way with a handful of one-loss teams near the top.

They way the rankings break down includes Ohio State and Georgia at No. 2 and No. 3 overall while Texas is at No. 5 with one loss. After the Longhorns, it went to Penn State getting the edge at No. 6 with Tennessee behind at No. 7.

Entering Week 11, both teams are squarely in the field of 12, but avoiding a second loss is currently crucial. However, Manuel was asked about the decision to favor the Nittany Lions over the Vols at this point in the process.

According to Manuel, Penn State’s only loss coming in a back-and-forth game against Ohio State was important. The Nittany Lions also received credit for wins over Illinois and against USC and West Virginia on the road.

“Well, Penn State lost to the No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes, and it was a game that went back and forth, and obviously a game that could have gone the other way. It was back and forth,” said Manuel during Tuesday’s teleconference. “In that, they have wins over Illinois and Southern Cal in overtime, an opening win at West Virginia, which is difficult to play. So we looked at their body of work.”

Meanwhile, the Vols have a win over Alabama, but the loss to unranked Arkansas received a lot of discussion:

“Tennessee has an impressive win over Alabama at No. 11 and wins over North Carolina State and Oklahoma, 4-1 against teams above .500. The loss at Arkansas was something that we discussed a lot,” Manuel explained.

Tyler Warren and Penn State’s complete offensive performance also caught the committee’s eye:

“So looking at the resume, looking at what we’ve seen, the offensive performance, their tight end Tyler Warren is a dominating force on offense,” identified Manuel. “So I just think Penn State, in terms of their body of work and what the committee saw in terms of their body of work, that came to the ranking of Penn State at 6 and Tennessee at 7.”

We’ll see how the results down the stretch shake things up, but Penn State was given the head-to-head advantage at this point in the process.