Where is Penn State ranked in the first top 25s for the 2025 season?
The final chapter of the 2024 college football season was written Monday night when Ohio State beat Notre Dame to win the national title. Every other program but those two had already turned their focus to the 2025 slate of games. Now, the Fighting Irish and Buckeyes will officially join Penn State and everyone else in doing so. That means one other thing is also true on Tuesday: A bevy of too-early top 25 rankings are out from media members across the country.
Andy Staples and Ari Wasserman of On3 kicked things off in this department last week when they put out a top 10 that has the Nittany Lions at No. 4 behind Texas, Ohio State, and Oregon, respectively. Do their peers agree? We rounded up as many polls as we could find online below. And the answer, for the most part, is yes.
Only one set of rankings has Penn State at No. 1, and that’s Stewart Mandel’s at The Athletic.
“Franklin’s inability to beat elite foes is well-documented, but he’ll really have no excuses in 2025,” he writes. “Nearly all of Penn State’s best NFL prospects return, most notably Allar and 1,000-yard rushers Singleton and Allen. Though defensive coordinator Tom Allen departed for Clemson, the unit he left behind is loaded. That’s good because Oregon comes to Happy Valley on Sept. 27, and Penn State plays at Ohio State on Nov. 1.”
At The Sporting News, Bill Bender puts Penn State at No. 4, too. He has the Longhorns, Buckeyes, and Georgia ahead of the Lions.
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“Dani Dennis-Sutton returns to lead a top-five defense,” he writes. “With that many players coming back, this is the all-in moment for the Nittany Lions. Is it their turn to win a national title for the Big Ten? Oregon (Sept. 27) and Ohio State (Nov. 1) are the big tests.”
More: Four-star wide receiver confirms he’ll visit Penn State this upcoming weekend
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/43452580/way-too-early-college-football-top-25-ranking-2025 only Ohio State and Texas ahead of PSU, who he puts at No. 3. Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports, meanwhile, has the Lions at No. 5 behind Texas, Georgia, Miami, and Ohio State, respectively. USA Today puts Penn State at No. 4, and Bleacher Report has the Lions at No. 3. Yahoo puts them at No. 4. And, FOX Sports’ RJ Young has the only list we can find that puts James Franklin’s team outside of the top five. He has them at No. 6.
All told, it averages out to the Lions ranking between the Nos. 3 and 4 spots. Here’s the breakdown:
| The Athletic | 1 |
| On3 | 4 |
| Sporting News | 4 |
| ESPN | 3 |
| CBS | 5 |
| USA Today | 4 |
| Bleacher Report | 3 |
| FOX Sports | 6 |
| Average: | 3.75 |
