Penn State has been getting a lot of love lately from media outlets and pundits who believe the roster is underrated and the team has a chance to make some noise. However, there are still the detractors that believe they have something to prove.
We all know the Nittany Lions took a step back last year after their first College Football Playoff appearance in 2024, but head coach Matt Campbell has seemingly given the program some stability. Despite the positive vibes heading into the regular season, Tom Fornelli of CBS Sports isn’t sold on them just yet.
He named a few college football teams he believes are overrated, and some that are underrated, before giving his bold predictions. Fornelli had Penn State as one of the overrated teams, stating
that, “it feels like the upshot everybody’s pointing at is the schedule, which doesn’t necessarily mean you’re actually a good team.”
While his logic is correct, he doesn’t mention that the team will still be tested against Michigan and USC, who both ranked higher on the preseason AP Poll. If that statement wasn’t painful enough, Fornelli questioned the Nittany Lions’ coaching, saying, “I don’t know that Matt Campbell is an upgrade in Year 1 from the James Franklin ceiling issue.”
Perhaps they won’t shock the world and go on a run in the College Football Playoff this year, but nobody is really expecting them to. Most publications have the team around nine or ten wins and earning a high-profile Bowl Game, which would be a total win for the program.
They just wanted to find their footing after the whirlwind they went through after Franklin’s firing, and it feels like they’re well on their way to doing it. Campbell might not take the country by storm in his first year with the Blue and White, but it’s hard to imagine it could be worse than 2025.
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This article originally appeared on Nittany Lions Wire: Penn State named one of ‘most overrated’ CFB teams of 2026
