When is the last time Penn State won a national championship in football?

The Penn State Nittany Lions are often considered one of the blue bloods of college football. It's hard to not think about Happy Valley, about Beaver Stadium, about the navy and white uniforms, and about all that goes into the brand and not think about how deeply it's engrained in the sport. So it's felt only fitting that the Nittany Lions were finally involved in the College Football Playoff in the first year of the 12-team format.

Not only did James Franklin and Penn State make the Playoff but they started peaking at the right time as well. They surged through their first two games after earning an at-large berth to punch their ticket to the Orange Bowl for a CFP semifinal date with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. That put them just one game away from playing for a national championship.

That, however, had fans wondering just how long it's been since Penn State won a national championship and, on top of that, how many the Nittany Lions have won as a program. We're here to unpack all of that for you.

When was the last time Penn State won a national championship?

Penn State last won a national championship all the way back in the 1986 season under Joe Paterno. The Nittany Lions sealed their national title with a 14-10 win over the vaunted Miami Hurricanes under legendary head coach Jimmy Johnson. PSU actually entered that game ranked No. 2 and The U ahead of them at No. 1 but pulled off the proverbial upset to claim the title.

The two big highlights for the Nittany Lions in that game were running back D.J. Dozier and the defense as a whole. Dozier, for his part, was the only consistent part of the Penn State offense, toting 20 carries for 99 yards and punching in the game-winning touchdown midway through the fourth quarter. However, despite being outgained 445-162 in the game, the PSU defense picked off Miami quarterback Vinny Testaverde five times in the game to close the gap and hoist the trophy.

How many national championshps has Penn State won?

Penn State has won two national championships in program history, both coming under Paterno in the 1980s. Here's a brief look at the two titles, the years they were won and the results that captured the championship for the program.

In addition to the two national championships the program claims, there are also five unclaimed national titles in Penn State's history. Those came in 1911, 1912, 1969, 1981 and most recently in 1994. For those unfamiliar, an unclaimed national championship is when a publication or outlet (back when the AP and others awarded titles) named the Nittany Lions as the title winners but the program and university doesn't recognize it. Usually, this happens when a publication that's most respected like the AP doesn't award a team the championship but another secondary outlet does.

Penn State made its first College Football Playoff appearance in 2024-25

Prior to the expansion of the College Football Playoff to 12 teams, Penn State had not made the CFP field in the four-team era. It was often said among college football fans and analysts that the Nittany Lions would be one of the biggest benefactors of CFP expansion because there were so many years in which they would've been among the Top 12 teams in the country and qualified even if they were outside the Top 4.

However, the first trip to the CFB Playoff for the Nittany Lions started off swimmingly in 2024-25 with a First Round win over SMU at Beaver Stadium that was followed by another dominant win over Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl for the quarterfinals.