Is This Finally Penn State's Year? Big Ten Media Is Convinced, I'm Not

The votes are in, and the media's pick for the Big Ten champion in 2025 is…

The Penn State Nittany Lions!

The Nittany Lions received 11 first-place votes, one more than defending national champion Ohio State, and are one of the odds-on favorites to not only win the conference, but the College Football Playoff as well.

While the media may be convinced that Penn State is ready to take things to the next level and add some hardware to its trophy case this fall, I am not so moved.

The boys from Happy Valley finished the 2024 season 13-3, which, on the surface, looks like a marked improvement over recent years, but when you peel back the layers, it starts to resemble some of their "close but no cigar" seasons they've become all-too accustomed to since head coach James Franklin's arrival.

Let's start with Franklin himself, shall we?

The Nittany Lions head coach is just 4-19 against top-10 teams in his tenure at Penn State, with one of those wins coming against SMU in the playoffs this past season, a team whose recruiting ranking routinely falls outside the top-50.

He has one win against a team in the AP top-five, that being in 2016 against second-ranked Ohio State, coincidentally his only win against the Buckeyes in 11 tries and the Nittany Lions' only Big Ten title while he's been at Penn State.

The other issue is Drew Allar, the up-and-down senior signal caller who many Penn State fans have pointed to as a reason for optimism.

Allar's stats look fairly impressive when viewed through a 30,000-foot lens, but upon closer inspection, you can see he suffers the same issue his coach does when it comes to big-game opponents.

In their three toughest games, against Ohio State, Oregon, and Notre Dame, Allar held an 0-3 record and completed less than 54% of his passes with three touchdowns against four interceptions.

I know the program went heavy on wide receivers in the transfer portal and this is supposed to be the year they break through, but I need to see it before I can believe it.

The public sentiment seems to be the same, with many mocking the Penn State hype train that the media appears to be driving.

If Penn State goes out and wins the Big Ten, I will gladly come back and write an article about how wrong I was this offseason.

I'm not saying it can't be done; I'm only using past tendencies as a predictor of future success, or in this case, lack thereof.

Regardless, this is about as deep and balanced as the Big Ten has been in quite some time, which says a lot seeing how the past two national champions have hailed from this conference.

Should the Nittany Lions win the conference and make a deep playoff run in 2025, it will be much deserved.

I just wouldn't bet on it.