How far did Penn State football rise in the top-25 rankings after beating Iowa?

Penn State may not have had an ideal start to Saturday’s game — but the ending sure helped the Nittany Lions in the most recent top-25 rankings.

After rallying to defeat Iowa 30-24, James Franklin’s crew moved up three spots to No. 14 in the most recent Associated Press Top 25 Poll, which was released Sunday afternoon.

Penn State leap-frogged three teams in Texas, Washington and Texas A&M — all of whom lost Saturday. Former Penn State offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead even helped out the Nittany Lions, as his Mississippi State squad upended the Aggies 28-13.

Penn State is still trying to work its way into a Rose Bowl spot, but it’s going to be an uphill battle. CBS Sports is still currently projecting Ohio State in “The Granddaddy of Them All” with Michigan in the College Football Playoff. That makes this coming weekend’s matchup all the more important with the Nittany Lions set to face Jim Harbaugh’s squad on the road coming off a bye.

If the Nittany Lions win, that could make for some interesting polls in the next few weeks.

For now, as we tend to remind readers every week, these rankings in and of themselves don’t mean a whole lot. It’s still early, and the AP Poll doesn’t actually factor in the playoff. Their value is simply in offering a sneak peek at how the playoff committee might rank the teams. And their rankings matter.

The first edition of the committee’s rankings will be released Tuesday night. And Penn State will likely be ranked around No. 14, where it was ranked in the AP Poll.

Based on the AP Poll, the Wolverines remain the team to beat in the conference. They were ranked No. 5 on Sunday, followed by three other Big Ten teams in No. 8 Ohio State, No. 14 Penn State and No. 19 Iowa. Wisconsin fell out of the rankings after a 31-17 loss to Northwestern.

Other Big Ten teams receiving votes in the poll included Northwestern, Michigan State and Wisconsin.

The full top-25 rankings are listed below:

1. Alabama (60 first-place votes)

2. Clemson

3. Notre Dame

4. LSU

5. Michigan

6. Georgia

7. Oklahoma

8. Ohio State

9. UCF

10. Washington State

11. Kentucky

12. West Virginia

13. Florida

14. Penn State

15. Texas

16. Utah

17. Houston

18. Utah State

19. Iowa

20. Fresno State

21. Mississippi State

22. Syracuse

23. Virginia

24. Boston College

25. Texas A&M

Others receiving votes: Washington 120, Northwestern 86, Georgia Southern 62, Michigan St. 51, Cincinnati 45, Iowa St. 42, South Florida 29, Stanford 26, Oklahoma St. 24, UAB 17, Oregon 13, Wisconsin 12, Auburn 7, San Diego St. 6, Army 6, NC State 5, California 2, Buffalo 1.

This story was originally published October 28, 2018 at 2:18 PM.