Is Penn State football overrated?
A lot of people would say “no.”
A lot of people would say “yes.”
The people who would say “yes” may have felt vindicated by insider Brett McMurphy’s list.
This list complied America’s top 25 overrated programs of the College Football Playoff era (2014-) based on how the team’s finished in the AP Poll at the end of the year compared to their preseason ranking. For instance, Penn State was hurt heavily last season by starting the year No. 2 in the poll and finishing unranked.
Penn State came in at No. 16.
Going back to 2014– which was also the first year of the James Franklin era in Happy Valley— Penn State started outside the top 25 and finished the same. The next year played out similarly. 2016 was the first year in which things looked drastically different for Penn State in the postseason rankings compared to the preseason.
PSU started the year out of the top 25 and finished No. 7.
This led to Penn State starting the next season ranked No. 6. PSU finished the season slightly lower at No. 8. In 2018, Penn State started No. 10 and finished No. 17. The next year, PSU started No. 15 and finished in the top 10 at No. 9. In the 2020, Penn State has only outperformed its preseason ranking twice, doing so in 2022 (unranked/No. 7) and 2024 (No. 8 to No. 5).
Here is the full list McMurphy published.
No. 1: Auburn
No. 2: LSU
No. 3: USC
No. 4: Clemson
No. 5: Wisconsin
No. 6: Florida State
No. 7: Texas A&M
No. 8: Oregon
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.No. 9: Oklahoma
No. 10: Michigan
No. 11: Alabama
No. 12: Stanford
No. 13: UCLA
No. 14: South Carolina
No. 15: Georgia
No. 16: Penn State
No. 17: North Carolina
No. 18: Florida
No. 19: Miami
No. 20: Texas
No. 21: Notre Dame
No. 22: Kansas State
No. 23: Arkansas
No. 24: Ohio State
No. 25: Iowa State
