Penn State postseason projections: Early predictions spotlight Lions' outlook
Penn State is now just days away from its season opener at West Virginia. If the calendar is not enough of a reminder of that, then this is: An updated batch of postseason and bowl game projections from various national media outlets are out. A handful of them hit the Internet Wednesday after a couple trickled out Monday and Tuesday as the first college football games of the year are set for this weekend. The Nittany Lions, of course, are done with preseason camp and turning their attention fully to the Mountaineers.
“There comes a point where you just need to play somebody,” Lions coach James Franklin said Tuesday night. “It’s hard to really determine. You see good things on tape, you have some concerns, some areas that you need to work on. But you’re going against the same people every single day. So it’s hard to really judge until you play somebody else. But in terms of where we’re at, and in terms of improvement, I’m comfortable with where we’re at. I think there’s some areas that we’ve taken some significant steps in. I think it’s much more competitive right now between the offense and the defense. And I think all three coordinators have done a phenomenal job, as well as some of the new players.
“So I think we’re in a good place. I don’t know if there’s kind of an area that I would say right now that is overly concerning. It’s more hard to determine until you play somebody else. It’s hard to totally evaluate your roster until you play somebody else.”
We round up the latest postseason projections below.
Penn State postseason projections before Week 1
We’ll start with a pair of picks for Penn State to miss the first 12-team College Football Playoff. Ralph Russo of The Associated Press and Andy Staples of On3 both have the Nittany Lions on the outside looking in at the field.
“The Nittany Lions would have made this version of the CFP six times since 2016 had this version existed,” Staples writes. “If they actually wound up here, the fanbase would melt down.”
That is an understatement, to say the least. Fortunately for ‘Nittany Nation,’ though, that duo are currently in the minority.
Brett McMurphy of The Action Network has Penn State as the No. 9 seed. He projects it to win a first-round road Playoff game at No. 8 LSU before falling to top-seeded Oregon in a quarterfinal at the Rose Bowl.
A few predictions are in from the college football team at ESPN. Heather Dinich puts PSU as the No. 11 seed and sends it to No. 6 Oregon for a first-round matchup. No further predictions are made. Her colleagues did project things further out, however. Mark Schlabach believes Penn State will be the No. 7 seed, giving it a first-round home game opposite No. 10 Miami. He projects a win there but a loss to No. 2 Georgia in the quarterfinals. Kyle Bonagura, meanwhile, has the Lions going one-and-done after a loss at No. 8 Notre Dame as the No. 9 seed.
At CBS Sports, Jerry Palm has Penn State in the 12-team field as the No. 9 seed and projects it to visit No. 8 Texas A&M in the opening round. No further projections are provided.
For The Athletic, Austin Mock calls Penn State the No. 7 seed in his ‘most likely bracket’ that calls for the Lions to host No. 10 Alabama in Round 1. He gives the Lions a 66 percent chance to make the Playoff and assigns it a 30 percent chance to host a first-round game.
