Penn State has become a fixture at the top of many top 20 and top 25 lists following spring football.
On3’s Ari Wasserman and FOX Sports/Big Noon Kickoff analyst Joel Klatt ranked PSU as the No. 1 team in the country earlier this month.
CBS Sports analyst Josh Pate isn’t as high on PSU as others. Pate regards Penn State as the No. 3 team in America, he revealed on social media Monday.
Only Clemson and Texas rank higher than Penn State. PSU is the highest-ranked Big Ten team out of five that made the cut.
Oregon (7) and Ohio State (8) rank below Penn State despite both beating James Franklin’s squad a year ago. The Ducks and Buckeyes lost their quarterbacks and a plethora of top talent to the 2025 NFL Draft.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Illinois (15) and Michigan (19) round out Pate’s 20.
Penn State returns seven starters on offense and six on defense, including Drew Allar, Nick Singleton, Kaytron Allen, Dani Dennis-Sutton, Zane Durant, Tony Rojas, A.J. Harris, and Zakee Wheatley.
Penn State reached the College Football Playoff semifinals last year, retained OC Andy Kotelnicki (a leading candidate for the WVU job), and added Ohio State DC Jim Knowles to the coaching staff.
The Nittany Lions host Nevada on August 30 to start the season.
