Penn State Will Make College Football Playoff For This Obvious Reason

Last season was Penn State's best chance in quite some time to win a national championship, and I don't think anybody can disagree with that. 

Penn State had an elite roster from top to bottom, a good coaching staff despite how poorly things went with James Franklin, and other factors that suggested it had a chance to win it all. 

After losing in the College Football Playoff semifinals the year before against Notre Dame, there was a hope and expectation that Penn State was going to get over the top. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case, and it led to some major changes.

This year will be a bit different, and while every season is viewed as national championship or bust for a program of this magnitude, especially with the amount of money it's spending, we also have to recognize that Penn State might not win it all this year because it's Matt Campbell's first season, and he needs to figure some things out in Happy Valley.

However, Penn State has some other things on its side, perhaps more importantly than anything else. 

The Nittany Lions have one of the easiest schedules in college football, at least when it comes to the Power Four rankings, and one college football insider believes that's the reason why Penn State can win 10-plus games next year.

“Matt Cambell is now the new head coach at Penn State. This program was 7-6 last season, and I think this is clearly trending up. James Franklin had one very specific issue: losing big games. Once they lost that Oregon game, the season spiraled out of control. Campbell is a perfect fit at Penn State. His 10 seasons at Iowa State should tell us one thing: this team is going to be solid.

“In this era, you're going to have years when you just hit the schedule lottery, and Penn State is set to face what I would say is a soft Big Ten schedule. They brought in a ton of guys from Iowa State, including QB Rocco Becht, whose 39 career starts are the most among returning quarterbacks in college football, and they have a schedule that really has a floor of nine wins,” Joel Klatt said.

I am a bit worried that he brought in a lot of players from Iowa State who won't be able to compete in the Big Ten. 

Not that these guys are going to be terrible players in the Big Ten, but I mean in the aspect of them being among the elite in the conference. Playing in the Big Ten and playing at Iowa State are two different things, so that's the one thing I'm looking for here, even if the schedule is a bit easier.