​Attempting to predict what will happen this college football season for Penn State is a bit tricky. The Nittany Lions are heading into the fall with a bunch of questions about the current status of the program thanks to a coaching change and a significant roster overhaul with help from the transfer portal. This year’s team is a much different team than the one we saw last season, when the year started with high expectations before coming crashing down like a meteor from the sky. But what does College Football 26 have to say about Penn State’s upcoming season?ESPN ran a full season simulation for the 2026 season on 26 separate occasions using the recent release of College Football 27 from EA Sports, this year’s updated version of the college football video game franchise. It is unknown just how well Penn State did in the majority of those simulations, but what was reported by ESPN is that Penn State won the Big Ten title just once out of 26 simulations.In the 26 season simulations run by ESPN, Ohio State won the Big Ten championship a total of 15 times. USC won the Big Ten three times and defending Big Ten and national champion Indiana celebrated a simulated Big Ten title twice. So did UCLA, of all teams. Joining Penn State with one simulated Big Ten title in ESPN’s 26 simulations were Michigan, Nebraska, and Oregon.Ohio State was the most common national championship contender in ESPN’s 26 simulations. The Buckeyes won the national title six times and played in the national championship game a total of nine times.As for Penn State, no national championships were celebrated by the video game representations of the Nittany Lions. Of course, Penn State is going into this upcoming season as a team flying under the radar as a potential wild card factor in the Big Ten and College Football Playoff contender. The national hype for Penn State is non-existent at the moment, and respect will have to be earned from the ground up after burning the hype train last season in spectacular fashion. Kevin McGuire is the lead writer for Nittany Lions Wire, part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow him on BlueSky, Threads or any of these other platforms.Follow Nittany Lions Wire on X and Facebook.This article originally appeared on Nittany Lions Wire: How does Penn State fare in a simulated 2026 video game season?