The past week or so has revealed a number of top 25 rankings being adjusted following the conclusion of the spring football practice season, and the expectations for Penn State have generally remained pretty high. The optimism about Penn State football will flow over into the summer at the height of preseason preview season, but what exactly has been the consensus feeling about the Nittany Lions coming out of the spring?
College Sports Wire took four of the major post-spring rankings that have been published and combined them into a cumulative ranking structure. As a result, Penn State landed a top-five spot in the composite rankings with the no. 5 ranking overall.
Penn State accumulated 81 points overall in this composite ranking, which was five fewer points than no. 4 Ohio State and one more point than no. 6 Florida State. The Seminoles appear to be this season’s trendy top 10 team on the rise, and a couple of the post-spring evaluations have Penn State behind the rising ACC favorites.
But Penn State took a no. 4 ranking from USA TODAY Sports and CBS Sports to help stay ahead in the cumulative rankings. While not included in this composite structure, the 247Sports post-spring ranking of Penn State fell more in line with the outlook from ESPN and Sporting News, and it likely would have dropped Penn State at least one more spot in the rankings to allow Florida State to move ahead of the Nittany Lions.
But regardless, Penn State is a team most everyone seems to agree should be a top 10 caliber team in 2023. The biggest question is whether or not it has what it takes to make a push for serious playoff consideration. Penn State’s path to the College Football Playoff has its challenges, including division showdowns with the Buckeyes and Michigan, who is a consensus no. 2 in the post-spring rankings behind only two-time defending national champion Georgia.
See the full composite post-spring rankings compiled by College Sports Wire.
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