The most anticipated Penn State football season in more than three decades is finally here.
Everybody has their predictions, and those obviously include Penn State’s beat writers from Nittany Sports Now and other outlets.
Will this be the year Penn State breaks a nearly four-decade long national title drought?
Will this be the year the team beats Ohio State?
Will yours truly finally find a woman?
Two of those questions will be answered by late January. We’ll see what happens with the third one.
Anyway, here are Penn State’s 2025 season predictions from around the beat.
Record: 11-1
Playoff Seed: No. 5
Do they win the Big Ten: No
Comments: Beware a “trap” game in the regular season. Top programs typically must worry about the loss they don’t see coming. There is more to the Big Ten than Oregon and Ohio State in the regular season. It’s possible the Lions face the Buckeyes twice this year and go 1-1, and both Ohio State and Oregon will get better as season progresses.
Mark Wogenrich, Penn State on SI:
Record: 11-1
Playoffs: No. 2 seed as the Big Ten champ
Penn State hasn’t been this popular preseason since 1999, and that didn’t end well. This team has a better offense, though, one capable of scoring on any defense in the country. Even Ohio State’s. See you at Hard Rock Stadium in January.
Record: 12-0
Playoff seed: No. 1
Big Ten Champion
After much deliberation, I’m picking Penn State to snap its lengthy Ohio State losing streak for a third straight season. I was wrong in 2023 and ’24, but now I’m banking on improved offensive balance, Jim Knowles’ brand swap and a collective program mentality that genuinely seems primed for a breakthrough.
Frank Bodani, York Daily Record:
Regular Season Record: 11-1
Big Ten Champs?: Yes
Playoff Prediction: Reach the national championship game
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Comments: A stunning alignment of forces make this a national championship-caliber season for Penn State. From a handful of All-America candidates and supreme depth … to their best offensive line in 31 years … to arguably the top coaching staff in college football. Their offense, triggered by three-year starting quarterback Drew Allar, could strike comparisons to that prolific, undefeated 1994 group. Even the schedule fits well with its warm-up opening and bye weeks before their two biggest games (Oregon, Ohio State).
Jarrod Prugar, Nittany Sports Now:
Record: 12-0
Comment: This is the year James Franklin and company get the job done in Columbus. They got their defensive coordinator. They’ve got the quarterback from Ohio. It would be a poetic occurrence to seal the deal against the Buckeyes and the schedule favors the Nittany Lions throughout the season.
Kyle Golik, Nittany Sports Now
Record: 16-0
Comments: I am not drinking from the Kool-Aid, this team is the most complete team in the nation. The only thing that will stop them from making history is themselves. This team is motivated to prove they have it and the timing is right. At worst – they will be 15-1, but I feel this team has a desire to be the absolute best.
Will they win the Big Ten? – Absolutely, I feel Penn State will either have a rematch with Oregon in the Big Ten Championship Game or a surprise team like Illinois might be their conquest in Indy.
Playoff Seed: No. 1 and going to the College Football Quarterfinal at the Rose Bowl to start the playoffs.
Playoff Finish: In Hard Rock Stadium on January 19, 2026, Penn State will hoist what looks like a golden baton or cylinder as they will be national champions. Maybe in a rematch against Notre Dame?
Joe Smeltzer, Nittany Sports Now:
Record: 16-1
Playoff Seed: No. 2
Big Ten Champs: Yes
National Champs: Yes
Comments: I wrote extensively about why I feel Penn State will win the national championship, giving seven reasons to be exact. I won’t go back through all seven here but what I’d say the biggest reason Penn State will win the “whole bleeping thing” (to paraphrase Jake Taylor from Major League) is that the program fixed its biggest weakness from a team that wasn’t far from national championship material last season.
In a year where Penn State needed to fix its receiving corps, it did.
In a year where many top contenders are trotting out first-year starters at QB, Penn State has a third-year starter who is talented enough to go No. 1 overall in next year’s Draft.
Penn State will lose to Ohio State Nov. 1, and many will called James Franklin’s head.
Those critics will be silenced forever Jan. 19 in Miami.
