Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Penn State Football

Penn State in top 8 of AP, Coaches Polls

This look pretty much sums up Penn State coach James Franklin’s Saturday in Minneapolis
Photo by Penn State Athletics: James Franklin

Penn State is ranked in the top eight of both the AP and USA Today Coaches Polls.

Coach James Franklin’s team is No. 8 in the AP Poll and No. 7 in the Coaches.

After its 35-16 win over Michigan State Saturday at Beaver Stadium, Penn State moved from No. 11 in the AP and 10 in the Coaches, the first time that its been ranked that highly in either of the two polls.

As expected, Penn State finished the regular season as one of three ranked Big Ten teams.

Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.

The other two, Ohio State and Michigan, played in arguably the most anticipated game of the college football season this past Saturday in Columbus.

No. 2 Ohio State came in as a an 8-point home favorite against its rival, ranked third. Michigan got the upset, 45-23, and now is ranked ahead of the hated Buckeyes in both polls. Michigan is No. 2, ahead of Ohio State at No. 5 in each. Georgia remains No. 1 in both polls after beating rival Georgia Tech. TCU moved up from No. 4 to No. 3 in both after its 62-14 win over Iowa State. USC is No. 4 right now, and assuming the College Football Playoff committee sees things the same way, the Trojans will be in the Playoff as long as they beat Utah in the Pac-12 Championship this coming Friday.

Penn State won’t be in the Big Ten championship game. Both of its losses— to Ohio State and Michigan, respectively— were in conference play, and therefore, Penn State finished third in the Big Ten East despite finishing the regular season 10-2.

Penn State now awaits where it will play its bowl game. It’s possible that Penn State will be in the Rose Bowl for the fifth time in school history and first since the end of the 2016 season.

Get NSN in your Inbox

Enter your email address to get notifications of new posts by email.

More from Nittany Sports Now

Penn State Wrestling

1 Less than a week out for the Penn State wrestling season opener against Bloomsburg, we got our answer: Levi Haines will not be...

Penn State Football

0s It wasn’t the laugher that it loed to be early on, but Penn State closed out Washington 28-25 for the biggest win of...

Penn State Wrestling

0s It appears that Penn State wrestling fans won’t have to wait long to see Masanosuke Ono make his debut. Speaking with Zach Seyko...

Penn State Football

0s We now know when Penn State-Minnesota will kick off, and what channel the game will be on. The kickoff time will be 7...