On Thursday, Fox Sports college football analyst Joel Klatt shared his "way-too-early" top 10 rankings for the 2025 season on his podcast, " The Joel Klatt Show ." At No. 1, he named the Penn State Nittany Lions, who recently fell to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff semifinals and finished the season 13-3.

The Athletic's Stewart Mandel is a preseason Penn State believer, placing the Nittany Lions atop his too-early top 25 for 2025. "I'm skeptical they can actually pull it off," Mandel writes, "but on paper, James Franklin's team deserves that status given how many players are returning."

The Nittany Lions ended in the top five for the first time since 2005. It’s the first time the Big Ten has had three teams in the final top five. Ohio State was No. 1 and Oregon was No. 3.