Penn State certainly didn't enjoy its loss to Oregon two weeks ago, but given the Ducks' status as expected College Football Playoff contenders, an overtime loss was forgiveable, if disappointing.
What has transpired over the last two Saturdays, however, is anything but.
The Nittany Lions traveled to the Rose Bowl to take on UCLA—which had already fired its coach and opened the season 0–4—and dropped their game with the Bruins 42–37. Penn State was a 25.5-point favorite ahead of the game.
James Franklin's squad returned to Happy Valley for its Homecoming game against Northwestern, another team planted near the bottom of the Big Ten in most power rankings. Even after last week's loss, which dropped PSU from the Top 25, the Nittany Lions were 22.5-point favorites over the Wildcats.
Saturday's loss was arguably even worse: a 22–21 defeat in front of the home crowd that also featured an injury to starting quarterback Drew Allar.
It is hard to find a worse two-week stretch for a team that entered the season considered as a national championship contender, and according to Fox's Chris Fallica, Penn State made a bit of history with its last two losses. After the game, The Bear shared that PSU is the first team in college football history to lose back-to-back games as a favorite of 20 or more points.
Penn State is the first team to lose consecutive games in which it was a 20-point favorite in both...
— Chris Fallica (@chrisfallica) October 11, 2025
Fallica followed it up stating that Penn State is just the third team to lose any two games as a 20-point favorite in the same season, joining the ignominious duo of 1996 Nebraska and '97 Texas Tech.
Those were the only two games the Huskers would lose during the 1996 season, and the Tom Osbourne-coached team would go on to beat Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl and finish 11–2. The '97 Red Raiders went just 6–5. These Nittany Lions are trending much closer to that direction.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Penn State's 2025 Collapse Summed Up by One Incredible Stat After Loss to Northwestern.
