No. 3 Penn State football dropped down a spot on the AP Top 25 Poll after an idle bye week. Miami surged to and leapfrogged over into that No. 2 slot. The Nittany Lions' (3-0) Week 5 opponent coming to town, No. 6 Oregon, didn't boost its way back into the top five on the AP Poll after its win over Oregon State on Saturday.
A top 10 matchup — a 2024 Big Ten Championship Game rematch — is still worth the time. Even ESPN's "College GameDay" crew is making the trip to Happy Valley on Sept. 27. If that's not enough, the No. 3 v. No 6 game can be argued to be a match between the top two teams in the country — just not in terms of polls and votes.
ESPN SP+ rankings list the Ducks and Nittany Lions as the top two teams in the country
According to ESPN's Bill Connelly, Oregon and Penn State are the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the country, respectively. His SP+ rankings are "predictive and forward-facing," and don't take into account records or schedules.
Connelly's updated rankings released on Sunday, Sept. 21. The Nittany Lions hold that No. 2 spot with a 26.6 overall rating while the Ducks lead with a 29.6 rating.
Both offenses and defenses sit in the top 10 as well.
Oregon has the No. 2 offense in the country (42.6) while Penn State barely scraped by at No. 9 with a 39.3 rating. Defensively, Jim Knowles has the upper hand on Tosh Lupoi as the Ducks fall one spot behind at No. 5 (12.8) to the Nittany Lions' fourth place rank (13.3).
While Penn State's special teams had a flashy game in Week 2 against Florida International, it wasn't enough to boost them on the SP+ rankings. It's rated 0.1 and is 36th in the country compared to Oregon's 0.3 rating at No. 4. However, head coach James Franklin is very pleased with punter Gabe Nwosu and is expecting him to tidy some things up moving forward. Other than Nwosu, Franklin said that special teams making a difference is what he likes to see and so far in the season, he doesn't have any red flags to wave or complaints to give.
Kickoff between the Big Ten rivals is slated for 7:30 p.m. ET. Beaver Stadium will be flooded with fans for the White Out before the Nittany Lions head to their first away game in Week 6 against UCLA.