The 2025 college football season officially kicked off with a slate of games in Week 0, but there was still time for at least one more bowl projection to be filed for the season. The Athletic published its bowl projections for the new college football season, and it is a rosy forecast for Penn State.
After receiving multiple bowl projections sending them to the Rose Bowl, Penn State picked up another Rose Bowl projection from The Athletic college football writers Stewart Mandel and Scott Dochterman. And on top of that, the projections from The Athletic (subscription required) give Penn State the top overall seed in this year’s College Football Playoff.
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That means Penn State would get a first-round bye, which was arguably detrimental to last season’s top four seeds. All four of the top four seeds in last year’s playoffs were defeated in their first game after getting a first-round bye. That included Boise State, which Penn State defeated in the Fiesta Bowl. This year could lead to a different trend, however, as the seeding will be amended this year.
Last year, the top four seeds were reserved for the four highest-ranked conference champions, but this year will see the top four teams in the playoff rankings be awarded a first-round bye regardless of whether they are conference champions or not. That could lead to more favorable matchups for the top four seeds in the quarterfinal round (Oregon faced Ohio State in last season’s quarterfinal, for example).
Under the projections from The Athletic, Penn State would play in the Rose Bowl and face the winner of a matchup between No. 8 Clemson and No. 9 Iowa, who would face off in a first-round matchup at Clemson. The only other Big Ten team in the playoff projections from The Athletic is Ohio State, which would host Arizona State in a first-round matchup.
Penn State’s season kicks off on Saturday, August 30, against Nevada. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET.
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This article originally appeared on Nittany Lions Wire: The Athletic’s bowl projection for Penn State is in
