What stands out to you about this list of all Power 4 Schools records versus Top 25 opponents?
Some real, old-school research provided us a true gem of eye-opening data about the state of the Power 4 programs in College Football in the College Football Playoff era.
This list shows the record of each Power 4 program in the country against top-25 opponents in the history of their teams. There are so many nuggets in here, but the natural place to start is with Penn State's modest, at best, record.
The Nittany Lions are 16-31 all-time against top 25 opponents, and the truth is that shouldn't surprise anyone. For the last 10 to 15 years, they have fought like a little brother to try and get to the level of Ohio State (45-14) and Michigan (24-29), who are considered to be the top-tier of the Big Ten. Even though they aren't all that close.
Penn State believes that they resemble those two programs when in reality, they are closer to teams such as Wisconsin (16-31), Michigan State (17-30), and Iowa (13-26). The hope is that with the addition of Matt Campbell, the Nittany Lions will be closer to the former group of teams and not the latter.
Furthermore, there are a couple of other main takeaways from this list. How about the original Big Ten members only have one team over .500 against the best opponents in the country?
The Big Ten also brings up the rear of the group with Maryland, Nebraska, and Rutgers, a combined 6-109 against ranked opponents. Adding in Purdue's 7-34 record to that bunch moves that final number to 13-143.
The volume of ranked opponents is staggering, but the lack of victories obviously stands out as a pretty shocking stat.
The top is pretty crowded with the normal suspects. Georgia, Alabama, and Clemson join the Buckeyes at the top of the list. That group is followed closely by Notre Dame, Oregon, and Oklahoma, who have all been very competitive in the last decade-plus.
I would also add that the conversation surrounding the Notre Dame Fighting Irish is fascinating because the narrative is that they never play anyone, yet they have 54 games against ranked opponents, which is just three games behind Ohio State and more than both Oklahoma and Clemson.
There are a lot of really cool pieces in here, but the main takeaway is that College Football is in an incredible place. There are so many competitive teams, and the ones at the top are going to stay at the top.
For Penn State, they have work to do to get there as they are pretty far off.
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