The combination of two playoff wins, roster retention and a headline-grabbing coordinator hire have expectations rising for Penn State football in 2025. The Nittany Lions aim to build on a 13-3 finish that featured losses to the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 teams in final AP Top 25 rankings, with national championship ambitions apparent.
“Everything here is so close to winning it all, and I’m hopeful that I can help get it there,” former Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles said during his introductory press conference.
Penn State hasn’t reached a national title game since its 1986 season, but many view this year as the program’s most realistic opportunity to accomplish that feat in at least a couple of decades. 247Sports’ latest College Football Playoff projection, published Thursday, forecasts that result for next January.
“Playoff seeding changes could happen in 2025, but we’re not going to see further expansion — at the earliest — until next season,” noted 247Sports national analyst Brad Crawford. “Currently, the highest-rated conference champions get the top four seeds and first-round byes while others are seeded by the selection committee. For this exercise, revised our way-too-early playoff projections from January a bit, now that rosters and depth charts are better established in spring camp.”
Initially, back in January, Penn State was a projected No. 8 seed. In that instance, the Nittany Lions were picked to beat No. 9 Georgia in Beaver Stadium before falling to No. 1 Ohio State in quarterfinal action. This April update paints a rosier picture for PSU.
247Sports predicts Penn State will enter the next playoff tournament as a No. 5 seed. Last season, the Nittany Lions advanced to semifinal action as a No. 6 seed. 247Sports expects the following four squads to secure first-round byes: No. 1 Ohio State, No. 2 Texas, No. 3 Clemson and No. 4 Utah.
Diving into the details of PSU’s projected playoff path, the Nittany Lions would again open at home against a program lacking much postseason pedigree in modern competition. Last December, that opponent was SMU, who suffered a 38-10 loss. This time its American Athletic Conference representative Navy visiting Happy Valley.
Navy would be the Group of Five’s lone playoff participant, and 247Sports predicts a Penn State win in Beaver Stadium. That would send the Nittany Lions into a Cotton Bowl quarterfinal showdown with No. 4 Utah, the projected Big 12 champ. Once gain, PSU gets the nod and moves onto semifinal competition for a second consecutive January.
An epic Big Ten rematch would come next in the Fiesta Bowl semifinal, where top-seed Ohio State would await.
OSU topped conference champion and No. 1 seed Oregon last season en route to a national title. This time around, they suffer Oregon’s fate, as 247Sports sees Penn State upsetting the Buckeyes. It would be their second battle of the 2025 season, following a Nov. 1 matchup in Columbus. PSU has not defeated Ohio State since 2016.
On the other side of this bracket, No. 2 Texas tops No. 6 Notre Dame in a Peach Bowl semifinal. That leads the Longhorns to their first national title game since 2009.
Penn State and Texas meet Jan. 19 in Miami at Hard Rock Stadium, where the Nittany Lions’ 2024 campaign concluded with a semifinal loss to Notre Dame. Crawford doesn’t identify a winner, but offered an assessment of PSU on that stage.
“As long as Penn State can get a few wideouts to emerge this season, this has a real chance to be the Nittany Lions’ first national championship campaign in nearly 40 years,” he wrote. “James Franklin knows his team is loaded and the offseason buy-in from several players who could’ve left or submitted their names in the 2025 NFL Draft was vital.”
This promising 247Sports projection won’t mean a thing when Penn State kicks off its 2025 campaign Aug. 30 against Nevada, but it’s another sign of heightened expectations for in Franklin’s 12th year. The Nittany Lions are widely anticipated to land inside top-five preseason national rankings, something that hasn’t happened with an AP poll since 1999.
“We’re here to win national championships, and we’re here to do it the right way,” Penn State athletics director Pat Kraft said in February of excitement surrounding the football program. “I’m committed. We’re committed to it. It takes everybody. When it comes to football, we’re close. We’re close, and we’re going to keep going and keep going and keep going until we get to where we want to be. And it’s working together with James.”
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