Penn State Football

Penn State football moves up in AP top 25 after win over Illinois. See the full rankings

Penn State has its highest ranking so far this season in the Associated Press Top-25 poll after defeating Illinois Saturday night at Beaver Stadium.

The Nittany Lions moved up two spots to No. 7 in the latest poll, which was released Sunday afternoon and saw movement in the top 10 including a new No. 1, Alabama.

Penn State pulled away late in Saturday’s matchup to secure a two-score victory over the Illini, winning 21-7 and moving to 4-0 on the season.

Illinois, which was Penn State’s first ranked opponent of the season, fell five spots to No. 24. There are seven total ranked Big Ten teams, with Ohio State ranking highest at No. 3. Also ranked are Oregon (No. 6), Michigan (No. 10), USC (No. 11) and Indiana (No. 23). Nebraska and also Iowa received voting points.

Penn State had 1,208 voting points, which was just eight fewer than No. 6 Oregon and 38 more than No. 8 Miami.

The Nittany Lions will try and stay undefeated this week when new Big Ten addition UCLA travels to Beaver Stadium. The Stripe Out game is set for Big Noon Kickoff on Fox.

The full AP rankings are below.

AP Top 25

(Sept. 29, 2024)

1. Alabama (40 first-place votes) 1,549

2. Texas (19 first-place votes) 1,525

3. Ohio State (4 first-place votes) 1,445

4. Tennessee 1,356

5. Georgia 1,329

6. Oregon 1,216

7. Penn State 1,208

8. Miami 1,107

9. Missouri 1,085

10. Michigan 913

11. USC 854

12. Ole Miss 799

13. LSU 757

14. Notre Dame 748

15. Clemson 694

16. Iowa State 656

17. BYU 549

18. Utah 467

19. Oklahoma 428

20. Kansas State 398

21. Boise State 253

22. Louisville 223

23. Indiana 172

24. Illinois 169

25. UNLV 122

Others receiving votes: Arizona 106, Pittsburgh 42, Nebraska 30, Boston College 18, Iowa 17, James Madison 13, Oklahoma St. 8, South Carolina 8, Rutgers 7, Kentucky 6, Navy 6, SMU 4, Army 2, Colorado 1

This story was originally published September 29, 2024 at 2:27 PM.

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Jessica McAllister
Centre Daily Times
Jessica McAllister has been the executive editor of the Centre Daily Times since 2019. She previously worked as a reporter at daily newspapers in New York and Colorado.
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