Penn State football enters 2025 with sky high expectations after a CFP semifinal run last season. Can the Nittany Lions come out on top in 2025?

James Franklin has picked up his first win over Ohio State since 2016. Penn State poached Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles over the weekend. While Ryan Day and the Buckeyes were busy celebrating their first national title in 10 years with a party at Ohio Stadium,

The Penn State football squad will host 2024 Big Ten champion Oregon and fellow 2024 College Football Playoff participant Indiana to highlight its 2025 schedule.

Joel Klatt had a very egregious ranking for Penn State ahead of the 2025 college football season: No. 1 overall.

The Athletic's Stewart Mandel is a preseason Penn State believer, placing the Nittany Lions atop his too-early top 25 for 2025. "I'm skeptical they can actually pull it off," Mandel writes, "but on paper, James Franklin's team deserves that status given how many players are returning."

Penn State received 1,203 points in the final AP Top 25 poll, just eight behind Texas for fourth. Ohio State was No. 1, followed by Notre Dame and Oregon. Penn State has finished in the AP top 10 five times in James Franklin's 11 seasons as head coach. Franklin's teams have seven top-20 finishes since 2016.

Could the College Football Playoff see the first-ever postseason edition between Ryan Day's Ohio State Buckeyes and Sherrone Moore's Michigan Wolverines?

Ohio State won it all, but neither the Buckeyes nor their league mates produced any drama that could contend with No. 1 on this list.

Penn State. Thirty-nine years after their last title, the Nittany Lions will defeat Georgia for the CFP title, Connelly writes for ESPN. In addition, Connelly predicts that Penn State will win their second Big Ten title under head coach James Franklin.

It's never too early to look ahead to next season's College Football Playoff despite the Ohio State Buckeyes capturing the National Championship just weeks ago.

Penn State is preparing to wrap up its impressive 2025 recruiting class. Could it add to it by National Signing Day?