Penn State trails Texas and Alabama in the opening Bowl Championship Series standings, which were released Sunday afternoon.
Texas' average of 0.998 -- two-thousandths of a point off a perfect average -- and Alabama's average 0.948 put those two teams at the top. The Nittany Lions' average is 0.867, which is ahead of Oklahoma (0.832) and USC (0.775) in the top five.
The BCS rankings incorporate the Harris poll, USA Today top 25 poll and a computer-generated strength of schedule formula. Penn State is third in the Harris and USA Today polls but lacks in strength of schedule, where Penn State is seventh among the top 10 BCS teams.
The top two teams in the BCS rankings at the end of the season will play for the national championship Jan. 8 in Miami.
"Honest to God, I don't even want to talk about that," Paterno said of the BCS rankings. "I just try to steer them in on what we got to do to win the next game. I mean, I don't even look at those things. And it's not something I could do anything about."
If current rankings hold, Penn State's strength of schedule will receive a boost by playing ninth-ranked Ohio State. No other Penn State opponent is in the BCS top 25, while one-loss teams behind the Lions will have ample opportunity to bulk up on strength of schedule.
The Sooners still have to play Texas Tech and Oklahoma State in the regular season along with the possibility of a Big 12 championship game. Georgia, which is seventh, still has to play LSU and Florida, plus a possible SEC championship game.
The Longhorns still play Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and Kansas. Alabama's schedule includes LSU.
One school of thought has the difficult schedule of SEC and Big 12 teams working in Penn State's favor because of the challenge of running the table. The other school of thought has Penn State's schedule being a weakness if the Lions would happen to stumble somewhere in the final four games.
For now, the focus is on Ohio State.
"The BCS rankings don't matter until January sometime," defensive end Maurice Evans said. "We're not worried about that. We've got to focus on our next challenge."
Scirrotto misses second half
Safety Anthony Scirrotto suffered a mild concussion his father, Tony Scirrotto, said.
Scirrotto missed the second half of Saturday's 46-17 win over Michigan. Wolverines running back Brandon Minor dealt Scirrotto a hard hit early in the first half, and Scirrotto later left the game.
He was replaced by redshirt freshman Drew Astorino, and Scirrotto's status for Saturday's game against Ohio State is unknown.
Wisniewski wearing brace
Guard Stefen Wisniewski hurt his left knee and was wearing a brace Saturday.
He alternated series with Mike Lucian, who has practiced this season as an offensive guard, defensive tackle and tight end.
"He's fine," center A.Q. Shipley said of Wisniewski. "They're just trying to get Mike back into the swing of things."
This and that
Defensive end Aaron Maybin, return specialist Derrick Williams and Shipley were named as midseason All-Americans by collegefootballnews.com and sportsillustrated.com, while Maybin and Williams were on cbssports.com's All-American team ... Wide receiver Brett Brackett, who sustained a concussion against Wisconsin, did not play.
