PSU Football
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News—August 4, 2026
Penn State Ranked #17 in Pre-Season Coaches Poll
The 2026 Pre-Season US LBM Coaches Poll was released on August 4th by USA Today, and Penn State is ranked #17. It’s the first ranking of the Nittany Lions in any major poll since being ranked #22 by the Coaches ahead of the 2025 game 6 loss to Northwestern (the final game under head coach James Franklin).
Other 2026 Pre-Season Coaches Poll rankings of note: #1 Ohio State, #2 Oregon, #6 Indiana, #14 USC, #16 Michigan, #19 Washington, & #22 Iowa. PSU is scheduled to play USC, Michigan, and Washington this season. This is the first year since 2012 in which PSU is not scheduled to play a team ranked in the pre-season Top Ten by the Coaches (this has a lot to do with the absence of Ohio State from PSU’s conference slate for the first time ever).
Note on the 2026 US LBM Poll Board of Coaches: Former PSU coaches James Franklin of Virginia Tech, Ricky Rahne of ODU, Manny Diaz of Duke, & Charles Huff of Memphis have votes as do all 3 of the non-conference coaches who will face PSU this fall (Marshall, Temple, & Buffalo). Big Ten Head Coaches at Ohio State, Purdue, Nebraska, Michigan, Washington, Northwestern, & Indiana also have votes—Penn State Head Coach Matt Campbell does not participate in the voting.
