JUST IN: Penn State earns top 10 preseason ranking in the AP Poll

For the majority of the college football season, the AP poll is the source of truth in terms of the top 25 teams in the country. Later in the season, the College Football Playoff committee will determine their own top 25 schools, which determine the four teams that get into the playoff and the New Year’s Six Bowls. Now, the Penn State football team has found what their preseason ranking is.

Penn State earns top 10 preseason ranking in the AP Poll

As the clock struck noon on Monday the entire college football community waited for the first iteration of the preseason AP Top 25. The Penn State football team has earned the 7th overall AP Poll ranking which checks out with the amount of talent and offseason hype that the program has received over the past few months.

BREAKING: The Bulldogs are back on top.

Georgia is No. 1 in the preseason AP Top 25 for the first time in 15 years. Big Ten rivals Michigan and Ohio State are next. https://t.co/fvQjvb8g0I pic.twitter.com/EefTX0GMqR

— AP Top 25 (@AP_Top25) August 14, 2023

Although it is great to be ranked among the top 10 college football programs in the country, the Nittany Lions will have to earn this ranking each week in order to prove that they deserve it. One of the challenges with any preseason ranking is that it’s just a number next to your favorite school’s name until they prove it on the field. Sometimes this ranking can lead to a false narrative and a preseason top 10 team could be unranked by the end of the season, other times it’s the team that was ranked on the lower end of the top 10 that makes a splash during the season.

Can the Nittany Lions live up to the hype?

I’ve always preferred the times when Penn State had little to no expectations and they exceeded them by beating opponents they were not supposed to. This year is very different, the Nittany Lions will be favored in many of their games and they have become the hunter instead of the hunted. The question remains, can Penn State live up to the hype? Only time will tell, but this team especially on the defensive side of the ball is legitimately one of the best in the country. If Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen can re-create that 2022 magic and Drew Allar can deliver Penn State should live up to or exceed expectations in 2023.

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