What’s arguably the most anticipated season of the James Franklin era at Penn State will start out with Penn State ranked in the top 1o in the AP Poll
PSU is No. 7 in the preseason AP Poll, the world found out Monday afternoon.
This comes a week after the USA Today Coaches Poll came out, which had Penn State No. 7.
Despite being in the top 10 Penn State’s just the third-highest ranked school in the Big Ten East, behind Ohio State and Michigan, who are each in the top five. On the surface, those two schools will each represent the biggest obstacles Penn State has to face to get to its first College Football Playoff.
Ohio State and Michigan were the only two teams to beat Penn State last season in what turned into a magical campaign for Franklin and co. Penn State started the season un-ranked, and ended it ranked No. 7 after beating Utah in the Rose Bowl. This year, Penn State has Ohio State on the road (Oct. 21) and Michigan at home (Nov. 11).
The last time Penn State started the season ranked in the AP Poll was 2021, when it began the year ranked No. 19. That team started promising, winning its first five games and rising to No. 4. But things went downhill after that. Penn State lost five six of its last eight games to finish 7-6 and unranked.
