Penn State football won’t have a long playoff run in the option of one major analyst.
In his updated College Football Playoff bracket projection, On3’s Ari Wasserman has Penn State having a dominant regular season, winning the Big Ten and picking up the No. 2 seed.
Wasserman also has Penn State losing to No. 10 Alabama in the quarterfinal.
Considering Penn State made it to the semifinals last season with players such as Drew Allar, Nicholas Singleton, Kaytron Allen and Zane Durant etc. all a year younger and without the benefit of a first-round bye, this would be seen by many as a failure.
TITLE OR BUST?
Photo by Matt Lynch, Nittany Sports Now
Whether this season is “title or bust” for Penn State is subjective. But there are plenty who see it that way. Never in James Franklin’s tenure— which is entering its 12th season— has Penn State had this good of a shot at a national title.
Franklin knows the expectations, and embraces them.
“I mean, that’s the nature of major college football,” Franklin said recently on the Triple Option Podcast. “That’s part of being at a place like Penn State. “We finished fifth in the country last year and people are pissed, right? Like that’s what the Penn State job is about. You’ve got to embrace that.”
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.James Franklin on Penn State’s Title Hopes: ‘We’ve Got a Tremendous Opportunity’
NEW FORMAT
Harrison Wallace fights for the ball on what would inevitably be Oregon’s game sealing interception.
As Wasserman noted in his tweet, this is his first bracket projection since the College Football Playoff changed its format. Last season— the first one that featured a 12-team bracket— was laid out so that the four first-round byes went to the four highest-ranked conference champions.
Now, it’s simply the four highest-ranked teams that will get the byes.
Had the current format existed last season, Penn State— which was ranked No. 4 through the Big Ten Championship Game— would have received a bye. But it wasn’t to be.
Penn State opens the 2025 season at 3:30 Aug. 30 against Nevada at Beaver Stadium on CBS.
