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Penn State Ranked No. 1 In 2025 Preseason Top 10

Originally posted on The Spun | By Kameron Duncan | Last updated Jan 23, 2025 2:53 PM ET

The 2024 college football season ended on Monday night, as Ohio State defeated Notre Dame in Atlanta to win the national championship.

The Buckeyes are still celebrating their win, but one top college football analyst is already looking to the future to see which teams can potentially lift the trophy next year.

Joel Klatt recently named his "Way-Too-Early" top-10 for the 2025 college football season, and he listed an interesting team in the top spot.

Klatt named the Penn State Nittany Lions as the No. 1 team in the country heading into next season, just after they were a field goal away from playing for the national championship.

“Penn State has gotten better every single year for the past 3-4 years, and James Franklin and (the Nittany Lions were) knocking on the door of a national championship (in 2024), and now they’re bringing all of those key pieces back to their team. This is the blueprint," Klatt said.

"Culture, togetherness, chemistry, whatever you want to call it or define it, it has to be held with guys that committed there...That’s what Penn State is going to have.”

Klatt's estimation of what it takes to be a championship program seems to be correct, following the amount of roster continuity from season to season from the last two national champions, Ohio State and Michigan.

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - DECEMBER 07: Head Football Coach James Franklin of the Penn State Nittany Lions looks on during the second half of the 2024 Big Ten Football Championship game against the Oregon Ducks at Lucas Oil Stadium on December 07, 2024 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images)Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images

The Buckeyes made significant additions through the transfer portal, and combined them with experienced, returning players to create the best team in the country this year.

Michigan won with a team that made two previous trips to the College Football Playoff before winning it all with a perfect season in 2023.

Penn State's 2025 roster will be filled with players who nearly reached the national championship this season, and they'll be hungry to get another chance to get there next year.

The rest of Klatt's top five includes Texas, Ohio State, Georgia and Oregon. National runner up Notre Dame is just outside the top five at No. 6 for the new season.

We'll see how things turn out when the new season begins in August, but with so many returning stars and a veteran head coach in James Franklin, it's certainly reasonable to expect Penn State to be a national title contender.

This article first appeared on The Spun and was syndicated with permission.

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