The college football season starts with two teams alone at the top of the Big Ten power rankings and a host of teams chasing the leaders.

Penn State, 13-3 a year ago, will be represented by James Franklin, quarterback Drew Allar, center Nick Dawkins and safety Zakee Wheatley.

The Nittany Lions are considered a Big Ten-title contender as well as a national championship candidate. As the center on the offensive line, Dawkins gets to work most closely with the guy who many think can lead Penn State to its first national title since 1986, quarterback Drew Allar.

Bud Elliott has released his annual Blue Chip Ratio, taking a look at the national title contenders in 2025. Here’s how to utilize that data.

The Big Ten stopped publishing a preseason media poll more than a decade ago following a vote of the head coaches. The intervening years have offered no incentive to restart the process. In fact, preseason polls appear to be headed the way of the dodo,

Allar is entering his third year as a starter and is fully bought in on what the program can achieve this season.

With her evaluation in hand, the board will consider president Neeli Bendapudi’s new compensation likely in September. Bendapudi has a rolling five-year contract and earns base pay of $950,000.

PennLive’s Johnny McGonigal and Bob Flounders react to some of the preseason Big Ten polls on this episode. Penn State is ranked No. 1 in preseason for the first time in the Cleveland.com poll, and James Franklin is the preseason choice for coach of the year in the conference.

As for texture, the Berkey Creamery was certainly better than any other ice cream I’ve had. It was nice and solid, not over-frozen like store-bought ice cream, but also not too soft. But despite its name, Penn State’s ice cream wasn’t as creamy as my next stop.