Let’s avoid the Phillies and banal Eagles training camp talk by briefly pivoting to college football.

ESPN’s Heather Dinich posted a subscriber-only story Thursday titled “College Football Playoff 2024: 30 teams can reach postseason.”

Our Temple Owls are unfortunately not on the list, but Penn State was ranked surprisingly high, all the way up at #5 per ESPN’s Football Power Index (FPI):

Dinich’s take: Penn State has a great chance to make the playoff — especially as an at-large team — but No. 5 is too high for the Nittany Lions at this point. PSU might be the fourth-best team in the Big Ten, behind Ohio State, Oregon and perhaps defending national champion Michigan. The Nittany Lions’ running game wasn’t as explosive last season and fell below expectations, while the passing game was underwhelming. Once again, coach James Franklin has new offensive and defensive coordinators. The good news for PSU is that it doesn’t have to beat Ohio State to reach the Big Ten championship game, since the league eliminated its divisions. The bad news is it might have to beat Ohio State in the Big Ten championship game — if the Nittany Lions can get there. Penn State has a season-defining stretch against USC, Wisconsin, Ohio State and Washington.

FPI is a predictive rating system that measures team strength by 20,000 simulations of the season. It’s an arbitrary thing that ESPN came up with, and without getting too deep into the details, the simple way to explain this is that the computers like Penn State’s chances in 2024.

For what it’s worth, the top four are Georgia, Oregon, Texas, and Ohio State. It’s interesting because most of the preseason or post-spring polls have Notre Dame and a bunch of SEC schools that will hand each other losses ranked in the 5-10 range. We’re talking Bama, Mizzou, Ole Miss, etc. The experts like Utah and Michigan and FSU as well. Penn State’s being ranked in the 8 to 12 range on these lists, but again, they play OSU at home and only go on the road once in their first five games, so if they get past WVU in Morgantown, they should knock off Bowling Green, Kent State, Illinois, and UCLA in Happy Valley to start 5-0. It’s the at USC, at Wisconsin, vs. OSU stretch that will define the season.


Also found this noteworthy in the story, a Rutgers nugget:

“The Scarlet Knights managed to avoid Iowa, Ohio State, Oregon, Michigan and Penn State this season, the only team in the Big Ten to do so. Rutgers is also one of four teams in the league, along with Maryland, UCLA and Wisconsin, that won’t have to play either Michigan or Ohio State.”

If the fighting Greg Schianos can knock off the Hokie Chokers in Blacksburg, they’ll be 3-0. Then the season over of 6.5 wins is in play and they’re going to a bowl game. Of course, if you’d rather set your money on fire than bet on Rutgers, allow me to recommend NJ online casino. Check out our online casino guides and make sure you’re equipped with a free spins welcome offer.