Assessing Penn State’s College Football Playoff expectations

Penn State will be looking to make its College Football Playoff debut this upcoming season ahead of the new expanded 12-team CFP. A program that’s perennially one of the top teams in the nation that was not quite able to break into the previous four-team iteration of the postseason path to a national championship.

A new playoff comes with new expectations, and during a recent appearance at the On3 Roundtable, Blue White Illustrated‘s Sean Fitz spoke about how the new playoff format impacts the Nittany Lions.

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“It certainly takes the foot off the throat there for a team that probably would have benefited from a 12-team playoff more than anybody in the country,” Fitz said. “Just always on that doorstep, but never quite in the mix, but also in the mix. It was a weird combination to have.”

“And for Penn State fans, it’s been a frustrating one, because you look at how close they’ve been and getting over the hump against Ohio State and Michigan. When they’re beating Michigan, they’re not beating Ohio State, they’re not beaten to Ohio State pretty often so it’s been frustrating for fans.”

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Along with the expanded playoff, the Big Ten Conference also did away with divisions when adding four new teams from the west coast the the program. Avoiding the defending national champions Wolverines on their schedule this season for the first time in a long time and squaring off against new conference opponents like USC, UCLA, and Washington.

But even through all the changes, Penn State has one of their most talented rosters to date in Happy Valley with the potential to make some noise in the College Football Playoff.

“But to be right in that 12-team mix, I think it kind of makes sense. I mean, this is probably the team that benefits the most nationally from a situation like this,” Fitz said. “So there’s been talk of it, I mean it looks like what I guess what we would consider a playoff team. It’s tough to make that distinction, because going from four to 12 is such a huge jump.”

“But very good defense, should be one of the best defenses in the country once again, special teams coming along, and they will carry that offense as long as they can. And if that offense can get up to speed, as I mentioned, Andy Kotelnicki’s new in town. But he seems to have some some high hopes around him, they should be right in that mix.”

Penn State’s new coordinators on both sides of the ball have the potential to elevate the Nittany Lions into a national title contender. A journey that starts in Week 1 this Saturday when they visit West Virginia for a marquee Week 1 showdown.