Where is Penn State in the final SP+ rundown, ESPN power rankings for the 2022 season?
Penn State is widely considered a top-10 team following after amassing an 11-2 record in 2022. Two more sets of rankings affirmed that belief on Wednesday.
ESPN college football analyst Bill Connelly has released his final SP+ metrics for the season, which concluded Monday night when Georgia smashed TCU 65-7 in the College Football Playoff national title game. The Bulldogs are unsurprisingly No. 1 in Connelly’s metrics with a rating of 37.3. They are described as “a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency” that is “simply a measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football. If you’re lucky or unimpressive in a win, your rating will probably fall. If you’re strong and unlucky in a loss, it will probably rise.”
Alabama (33.3), Michigan (31.3), Ohio State (30.7), and Tennessee (28) rounded out the top five, respectively.
Penn State checks in at No. 6. While its rating of 23.6 falls well below the top five teams and certainly the top four, it is one of just eight schools with a rating over 20. The others are No. 7 Texas (22.4) and No. 8 TCU (21.8).
At the end of the regular season, the Lions were No. 9 in SP+ with a 22.7 rating. So, they did receive a bump after beating Utah 35-21 in the Rose Bowl. The Utes, for what it is worth, were at No. 10 in December and remain there in January following the contest in Pasadena, Calif.
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Connelly’s SP+ had Penn State as the No. 13 team in the country during the preseason. The No. 6 final mark matches the Lions’ highest of the year. It also reached that point one week before the regular season finale.
Where did Penn State finish in ESPN’s 2022 college football power rankings
ESPN also released its staff’s power rankings on Wednesday. Head coach James Franklin’s team finished at No. 7 in that rundown. That’s where it finished in the final Associated Press top 25 and Coaches Poll, as well.
“Penn State won 11 games with its only two losses coming to Michigan and Ohio State, both of which made the College Football Playoff,” Tom VanHaaren writes for ESPN.
“In quarterback Sean Clifford‘s final game, he threw for 279 yards and two touchdowns in the win. True freshman running back Nick Singleton ran for 120 yards and two touchdowns, which put him just 16 yards away from breaking Saquon Barkley‘s freshman rushing record at Penn State. Fellow freshman Kaytron Allen also ran for a touchdown and showed why the future is bright for the Nittany Lions.”
