Heather Dinich picks Penn State as the team with the best national championship chances in 2025

Penn State has popped up as a national title pick for several analysts going into this season in the College Football Playoff. Two more have since continued that this morning by going with the Nittany Lions as a preseason selection to win the CFP.

While on ‘Get Up’ on Thursday, ESPN’s Heather Dinich picked Penn State to win the national championship this season. That’s with one of the best teams in the country this year when you look at their depth chart going into 2025.

“I’m going to go with what I know on paper right now and that’s Penn State, which is loaded,” Dinich said.

That said, Dinich’s main point was about Drew Allar, the quarterback back for a fourth season and third as QB1 in University Park. Allar returning and having another year of development with this program and staff could be the difference for Penn State, especially after he got to play in three playoff games a year ago, unlike some of the quarterbacks of the other early title favorites.

“We’ll start at quarterback with Drew Allar. I think he’s going to be a lot better this season,” said Dinich. “He’s got a secret weapon on his side, actually, in (DC) Jim Knowles, who was hired from Ohio State. You know why he’s a secret weapon? Because he scouted Drew Allar when he was with the Buckeyes and now came to Penn State and said, ‘Hey, you know what, this is what I saw from you, this is how you can be better.’

“By the way, Drew Allar has something that no one else has in terms of Texas, Ohio State, Oregon – playoff experience,” Dinich added.

When Peter Schrager asked him as well, ESPN’s Harry Douglas also went with Penn State over Texas. That’s with the Nittany Lions’ talent on both sides of the ball, namely with those returning from last year’s appearance in the Big Ten Championship and debut for the school in the CFP.

“For me, it’s going to be between Texas or Penn State, but I’m going to go with Penn State in this case right here,” Douglas said. “When you look at their defense, they have another ferocious pass-rusher. When you look at Dani Dennis-Sutton, he’s a guy who had 4.5 sacks in three playoff games last year in the College Football Playoff. Drew Allar is a guy that wants to redeem himself. He had that terrible interception late versus Notre Dame that allowed Notre Dame to kick that field goal and advance in the College Football Playoff. So Drew Allar is going to come and tear up the league this season. Looking forward to watching Penn State.”

This season is highly anticipated, with a ton of expectations on Penn State. Dinich and Douglas added to that this morning with the Nittany Lions being their selections to win it all.