Penn State Earns Top-5 Finish in AP Top 25 Poll Following College Football Playoff Run

Ohio State’s 34-23 win over Notre Dame in Monday’s national championship game signalled the conclusion to the 2024-25 season, a year that saw Penn State make a historic leap. The Nittany Lions ranked No. 5 in the postseason AP Top 25 poll, marking the program’s first top-5 finish of James Franklin’s tenure.

The last time Penn State finished a season ranked within the top-5 nationally was in 2005, when the team compiled an 11-1 record and claimed a 26-23 win over Florida State in the Orange Bowl.

In this year’s postseason poll, the Buckeyes, Notre Dame, Oregon and Texas are the only teams ranked ahead of the Nittany Lions. Ohio State, the Fighting Irish and the Ducks were also the only teams to defeat Penn State this season.

After the Nittany Lions, the top-10 is all follows: No. 6 Georgia, No. 7 Arizona State, No. 8 Boise State, No. 9 Tennessee and No. 10 Indiana. 

SMU, which fell to Penn State in the first round of the College Football Playoff, came in at No. 12.

Illinois was the fifth and final Big Ten team included in rankings, and finished at No. 16. The Nittany Lions defeated the Fighting Illini in the regular season, meaning Penn State concluded the year with three top-20 victories in 2024.

The full postseason AP Top 25 poll can be found here. 

The Nittany Lions are set to enter the 2025 season with much of the same crew it had this past season. Drew Allar, the team’s starting quarterback, running backs Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen, defensive linemen Dani Dennis-Sutton and Zane Durant, safety Zakee Wheatley and more have announced their returns for what should be a highly anticipated campaign.