Although perennially one of college football’s top teams over the last decade, Penn State never made the four-team College Football Playoff.
The Nittany Lions have gone 88-39 under James Franklin in 10 seasons since the CFP’s introduction and ranked as high as No. 8 during each of the last eight seasons. Yet Penn State has consistently fallen short to Michigan and Ohio State, with at least one of those Big Ten rivals competing in the last five playoffs.
Looking ahead to an expanded 12-team field, 247Sports’ Brad Crawford named Penn State the top school to never make the CFP.
“The program that should benefit the most in this ranking from playoff expansion is Penn State,” Crawford wrote. “Under the 12-team rules, the Nittany Lions would have made six trips to the playoff already under James Franklin, highlighted by four 11-win finishes. Ohio State and Michigan beat up Penn State in recent Big Ten years, keeping this program at bay from competing in the national title hunt.”
Penn State has finished back-to-back regular seasons with two losses, both to the Wolverines and Buckeyes. Franklin led the Nittany Lions to three other 11-win campaigns in 2016, 2017, and 2019.
A similar result would give Penn State a ticket to a 12-team postseason bracket. But the prestigious program hasn’t defeated a top-five opponent since upending No. 2 Ohio State in 2016, so Franklin’s squad must prove capable of beating a formidable foe to make any playoff noise.