Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1546159
W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 1st Where the Penn State foot- ball team's game against USC ranks on Athlon's list of the top Big Ten clashes of Week 6. Senior editor Steven Lassan listed the best game of every week of the upcoming Big Ten season, and the Trojans' visit to Bea- ver Stadium, their first since 1994, led the way for the weekend of Oct. 9-10. Lassan described it as "one of the big- gest swing games on the '26 slate." 2 Former Penn State tight ends listed in Pro Football Focus' ranking of the top players in the NFL at that posi- tion. Tyler Warren placed 10th, while Brenton Strange was right behind him in 11th place. Warren is coming off a rookie season in which he finished fifth in the league with 817 receiving yards and second in yards after the catch with 487. Strange is look- ing to build on a 2025 campaign in which he ranked fifth among all NFL tight ends with a 77.6 run-blocking grade. 3rd Beaver Stadium's place in USA Today's ranking of the top sta- diums in college football heading into the 2026 season. The Nittany Lions' home field remains under construction but "continues to rank among the nation's elite" according to reporter Steve Samra, who tabulated the results from a poll of the news outlet's staff. Tiger Stadium at LSU tops USA To- day's list, followed by Ohio Stadium. In addition to the historic venues at Ohio State and Penn State, seven other Big Ten facilities appear in the top 25: Aut- zen Stadium (Oregon, No. 5), Michigan Stadium (Michigan, No. 12), Husky Stadium (Washington, No. 14), Camp Randall Stadium (Wisconsin, No. 19), Kinnick Stadium (Iowa, No. 21), the Rose Bowl (UCLA, No. 23) and Memo- rial Stadium (Nebraska, No. 24). 11 Projected wins for Penn State this season according to the Massey Ratings, a heavily data-driven ranking system developed by mathematics pro- fessor Kenneth Massey. This year's ratings give Penn State an 83 percent or better chance of win- ning nine of its 12 games. The only games that fall below that threshold are clashes with USC (65 percent win probability), Michigan (45 percent) and Washington (53 percent). Massey's number-crunchers are much more bullish on Penn State than ESPN's analytics gurus. According to the net- work's Power Football Index, the Lions will go 9-3 this fall. 21st Penn State's spot in the final Learfield Direc- tors' Cup standings for the 2025-26 athletic year. Buoyed by the men's la- crosse team, which compiled 65 points to lead all Nittany Lion spring teams, PSU finished with 864.5 points in the final standings. As usual, the WRESTLING TEAM was Penn State's leading point- producer, scoring 100 points with its fifth consecutive NCAA championship. PSU has now finished among the na- tion's top 25 overall athletics programs in 30 of the 32 years the Directors' Cup has been awarded. $5 million Penn State received a seven-figure donation in July from Bob and Sandy Poole, with the money earmarked for the ongoing Beaver Stadium renovation project. A 1972 graduate of the Smeal College of Business, Bob Poole received the university's Distinguished Alumni Award in 2006. As president and CEO of S&A Homes and Allied Mechanical and Electrical, he's been a key figure in helping grow the Centre Region and has been active in numerous philanthropic ventures, notably as a member of the Geisinger Health Board of Directors. The Centre Daily Times reported in July that Penn State had raised more than $135 million in private donations for the stadium project. Prior to the start of construction, the university had set a $134.3 million fundraising goal — 20 percent of the projected cost of the renovation. By The Numbers S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 6 17 PHOTO BY MARK SELDERS/PENN STATE ATHLETICS