Penn State fans probably didn’t expect the game between No. 1 Alabama and Vanderbilt to impact their favorite team.
Alabama football is one of the biggest brands in North American sports.
Vanderbilt is known more for academics.
But if everything went according to plan, life wouldn’t be much fun at all, nor would watching college football. In what’s the biggest upset of the college football season thus far, 22.5-point underdog Vandy upset Alabama, 40-35.
A NEW MUSIC CITY MIRACLE!
VANDY STUNS NO. 1 ALABAMA FOR ITS FIRST TOP-5 WIN IN SCHOOL HISTORY 🔥 pic.twitter.com/4RSMoAUTvk
— ESPN (@espn) October 5, 2024
How does this help Penn State? Simple. Alabama is ranked ahead of No. 7 Penn State in the AP Poll, so any team ahead of PSU that loses helps the cause.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.One could argue that PSU didn’t help itself Saturday as much as it could have.
PSU came in as four-touchdown favorites over UCLA, a team that came into Happy Valley 1-3 with each losses being by three scores or more.
The 27-11 win was actually the closest of any UCLA loss thus far and moves Penn State to 2-3 against the spread, so it’s safe to say this win lacked the style points voters like.
But it’s also hard to assume that Penn State would move down because of its win. After all, the team was wining 27-3 before UCLA added a meaningless touchdown and an even more meaningless two-point conversion. There have certainly been crazier things to happen in college football rankings.
Regardless of how this impacts the rankings, it’s certainly sweet for James Franklin, who was Vanderbilt’s head coach from 2011-13 before taking the Penn State job and January 2024. Who knows if he had time to watch the game, but it’s a good bet he’s happy about it.
