In the latest AP Poll Penn State came in at No. 7, retaining its preseason spot after 38-15 season-opening win over West Virginia Saturday night. LSU was ranked No. 14 after taking a 45-24 drubbing to Florida State and thus dropping to No. 9.
Interetingly enough, two AP Poll voters had PSU behind LSU and out of the top ten.
One of them was Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News, who had LSU ranked No. 9 and PSU No. 11.
The other was Rece Davis.
The ESPN College GameDay Host had LSU ranked tenth, one spot ahead of PSU.
There’s still a lot of time for LSU to jump ahead of Penn State in the official rankings. LSU will have plenty of opportunities to make for the Florida State debacle, including trips to to Ole Miss Sept. 30, Nov. 4 at Alabama and hosting No. 23 Texas A&M Nov. 25.
Before that, LSU will host Grambling State this weekend and PSU will host Delaware.
In the official AP Poll, Big Ten East foes Michigan (No. 2) and Ohio State (No. 5.) are ahead of Penn State.
But No. 7 is a much higher ranking than Penn State had at this point last season. After starting 2022 un-ranked, a thrilling 35-31 season-opening win under the lights at Purdue wasn’t enough to get Penn State in the top 25. PSU was second amongst “others receiving votes with 122, behind Oregon at 131.
Penn State ended up cracking the rankings for the first time the next week, coming in at No. 22, and didn’t fall out of any poll for the rest of the year.
PSU finished 11-2, capped off by a Rose Bowl win over Utah, and ended the year ranked No. 7.
Twitter: @bwalkerdadon
