Many college football fans and analysts alike thoroughly believe that the current Penn State Nittany Lions team under James Franklin is the best that the school has fielded since Franklin’s arrival in Happy Valley in 2014.
Some even believe the team is able to make it one step higher than they did last season and make it to the national championship game and come away with hardware.
But ESPN’s Paul Finebaum is not one of those some.
After Heather Dinich picked the Nittany Lions to hoist the trophy in late January, the host of The Paul Finebaum Show was quick to throw in his two cents on her take, putting his confidence in the SEC’s Texas Longhorns instead.
“RC, give me that SEC card back again. Heather, you had me until you said number one in the country,” Finebaum said on the Get Up podcast. “There is no way. Texas is the best team in the country. They are going to win the national championship. There is no way the Big Ten does it three years in a row. If I had to bet on somebody, I would never bet on James Franklin doing it. He’s a very good coach. He’s not a great coach. Penn State will not win the national championship.”
The Big 10 conference has won the past two national championships, but before then it was mainly the SEC taking home the gold before then, with six of the 10 titles in the 2010s going to SEC schools.
But to be fair, Penn State and Texas could easily find themselves pitted against one another in the national championship in Miami in late January 2026, as both teams made it to the College Football Playoff semifinals, losing to the Ohio State Buckeyes and Notre Dame Fighting Irish, respectively.
As if James Franklin and the Penn State Nittany Lions don’t have enough people to prove wrong this season, one of the best minds in college football now finds…
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Publish date : 2025-07-22 01:46:00
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