How Did Penn State Athletics Do In 2025-26? Introducing The Somers Scale

On July 27, 2025, StateCollege.com’s Mike Poorman set the table for the 2025-26 school year for Penn State athletics.

“How Many National Championships Will Penn State Win in 2025-26? (The Record Is 4)”, the headline read.

By the time the article was published, the expectations were already – as Poorman alludes to – sky high in Happy Valley. There was a football team coming back with vengeance, a drive removed from potentially playing for a national title. There was the reigning women’s volleyball national championship looking to defend their crown. Penn State men’s hockey had made an all-in move for the likely No. 1 NHL Draft pick in the 2026 draft. And Penn State wrestling still exists.

A few days later, as a part of the launch of Roar+, athletic director Pat Kraft – who was a key figure in creating the platform – sat down with linebacker LaVar Arrington. It was clear Kraft had read Poorman’s work.

“Let’s talk about the four,” Kraft said, answering Arrington’s question about expectations. “Yeah. I want four national championships in one year.”

Where Penn State actually finished its athletic year – at least in team sports – was not near that goal.

While Penn State, which spends the most on wrestling in the country, did win one national title thanks to Cael Sanderson’s team, it also saw four coaches who were fired or did not have their contracts renewed. It had its worst cumulative win-loss record in team sports since Kraft became athletic director – and the worst since 2018-19.

In a statistical analysis, it was the worst year for Penn State athletics under Kraft, who is in his fourth school year as AD. It also comes at a time when Penn State is spending the most money on its teams.

The Somers Scale

(Editor’s note: I wanted to name it the Systematic Success Scoring Winning System (SSSWS) but Steve suggested the Somers Scale is, correctly, easier on the tongue.)

Through an analysis of win-loss records and postseason success that is weighted by team sport spending from the NCAA’s required Membership Financial Reporting System, Penn State’s 2025-26 year scored 7th out of the 11 last school years – and fourth of the tenure of Kraft.

Methodology

Out of Penn State’s 31 teams, 14 play sports where a winner is decided over a set period of time (e.g. Football) or first total score goal (e.g. women’s volleyball). Additionally, Penn State wrestling, and all college wrestling teams, keep a win-loss record. Those 15 teams were evaluated on an annual basis by performance in the Somers Scale.

Initial data for this exercise was collected from the 2015-2016 school year onward.

Teams were assigned point values based on three criteria: percentage above or below .500, conference success, and postseason appearances and success.

Win-Loss Percentage

Each team’s win-loss record was compared against the .500 mark. For example, if a team won 10 games, lost 4, it was .214 points above .500. Conversely, if a team won 5 games but lost 8, it received a score of -.115.

Penn State’s raw total for 2025-26 was 1.113, the third-worst of any year that data was collected. It should be noted that this is different than a cumulative win-loss record which was .563, fourth worst of any year. The aggregated differential better equally weights teams’ performance against one another.

Conference Success

Each team was given 2 points if they won a conference title as listed on or acknowledged on this page of Penn State’s athletic website. Teams were only given credit for one conference title, meaning the maximum they could earn per year is 2. For example, Penn State wrestling was given 2 points and not 4 for winning the Big Ten Dual and Big Ten Tournament titles. This was done in fairness as several sports like women’s volleyball do not have conference tournaments.

Postseason Success

With the exception of football, all NCAA Tournament appearances were given 1.5 points. All national championships were given 5 points. From 2015-16 forward, Penn State has won national championships in three sports considered for this exercise: women’s soccer (2015-16), women’s volleyball (2024) and wrestling (nine, most recently in 2025-26).

Penn State football’s scoring operates slightly differently. A half point was awarded for a non-New Year’s Six bowl, another half point was awarded if they won their bowl. So Penn State playing and winning the Pinstripe Bowl under Terry Smith was worth one point. New Year’s Six Bowl appearances – as well as Penn State’s 2024 home College Football Playoff – earned 1.5 points for an appearance and 2 points for a win.

In total, the maximum number a non-football sport could earn in a given year is 9 points, which Penn State wrestling has done nine teams since 2015-16. The maximum number of points Penn State football could earn ranges from 12 to 19 points, depending on the year, due to changes in the College Football Playoff and the surrounding landscape. However, it only scored 8.813 during the 2024 season, the most during this time period, for example.

Finally, one point was awarded to Penn State men’s basketball for winning the NIT in 2018-19. Because the scoring looks at results, Penn State does not earn credit for its 2019-2020 season, a team that would have likely reached the NCAA Tournament. (Consider the NIT win a partial refund if you will.)

Using this scoring, Penn State wrestling of course was the top team with a perfect 9 points. Penn State women’s hockey, which reached the Frozen Four for the first time behind the ability of Tessa Janecke, was the No. 2 team in 2025-26, scoring 3.846. This was the 9th-best non-wrestling score since 2015-16. Penn State’s national title-winning teams of women’s volleyball in 2024-25 (8.946) and women’s soccer in 2015-16 (8.852) were the first and second teams overall, respectively.

Adjustment Factor

Using the outlined scoring methodology, Penn State’s 2025-26 school year ranks fifth best over the last 11 school years when looking at raw scoring. It would still rank last in the Kraft era.

But the Somers Scale also takes into consideration the spending the athletic department does on these teams – and thus the difference in expectations and attention various sports bring.

By weighting each individual team by reported spending on each team, we can better apply and understand the expectations of Penn State’s teams in the eyes of internal stakeholders, the national and local media as well as the fans. Using the raw total would distribute points evenly across teams in spite of the fact that through television contracts, Penn State makes (and spends) more money from football and men’s basketball. Additionally, Penn State teams like football, wrestling and basketball generally get more attention and media coverage than say field hockey or baseball which are mostly covered by student outlets.

Each team’s last four years of spending data, as reported in the NCAA Membership Financial Reporting System, was averaged and divided by the average of total overall spending. The denominator in this equation is the average overall spending for the entire athletic department, not the sum of the 15 teams included. This is because Penn State reports a large margin of spend unassigned to individual sports. The adjustment factor will be applied on a rolling 4-year basis moving forward.

Additionally, Penn State’s reported 2024-25 number was used. This data includes NIL spending, something which Penn State appears to be the only school in the country to share. While that caused Penn State to see a 18% spending increase year over year compared to the previous report, which had a 7% jump, it is the data reported to the NCAA and will likely be included in future reports by all schools. This is also why a four-year average was used, given that we will not know how Penn State spent in 2025-26 until early 2027. Applying the average better protects the data from outlying years where spending spiked in individual sports.

The range of the spending percentages averages run from 32.53% with football to .61% with men’s volleyball. Each respective percentage is then multiplied by each team’s raw score. All adjusted scores are summed together by year to give the total score on the Somers Scale.

The Results

Once the adjustment factor is applied, Penn State’s 2025-26 athletics year scored a .749, ranking the year 7th of the last 11. The 2024-25 school year, which saw Penn State win two national titles and a strong season from Penn State football, finished on top of the Somers Scale. 2020-21, a year largely impacted by COVID in the fall, ranks last. (2019-2020, which was essentially a half-normal year ahead of the pandemic and its shutdowns, was the fifth best overall largely thanks to Penn State’s Cotton Bowl win.)

The Somers Scale

For what the 2025-26 season offered, Penn State fell grossly short. Of Kraft’s four school years, the only other to score less than one point on the Somers Scale was 2023-24, the year in which Penn State played in but lost the Peach Bowl against Ole Miss.

In particular this school year, five teams saw scores of less than 0, essentially derived from their win-loss production. Penn State men’s soccer, field hockey, baseball, women’s basketball and men’s basketball. Men’s soccer, field hockey and women’s basketball will all have new coaches in 2026-27, with women’s basketball and field hockey’s press releases using the “contract not renewed” language or something similar. Penn State men’s soccer head coach Jeff Cook resigned for an opportunity in the MLS but it is unclear if he was gently nudged in that direction.

The drop from 3.367 last year to this year’s .749 was the largest year-over-year drop by both total points and percentage over the last 10 years.

While it was the worst year of the Kraft era for Penn State football, from the Somers Scale standpoint, it finished tied for 7th with 2021. The 2018, 2015 and 2020 seasons finished below 2026, respectively.

Men’s basketball saw the largest year-over-year drop, down 875% year over year. Additionally, Penn State baseball saw a 308% drop and Penn State football saw an 88% drop. Of 165 teams considered in this exercise, Penn State’s 2025-26 women’s basketball team finished 149th, men’s basketball at 151st and baseball at 159th.

Penn State women’s lacrosse saw a 2700% growth in Kayla Treanor’s first season at the helm. That is the third best of a women’s lacrosse team over the last 11 years.

Overall, Penn State won four conference championships in 2025-26 (men’s volleyball, women’s ice hockey, men’s lacrosse and wrestling).

While the 2025-26 Penn State athletics year isn’t quite over yet as track season wraps up, it’s unlikely that Penn State will add another national title to its trophy case. It won just one of those four Kraft wanted in 2025-26 thanks to Penn State wrestling.

Raw Team Scores Since 2015-16

If you’ve enjoyed this content, please subscribe to Stuff Somers Says With Steve on YouTube. Or join our newsletter by entering your email below.

Share This Article