In college sports, players are only around for so long, but what they do in their times here can last a lifetime.

There have been some great highs and some steep lows in the history of the Penn State athletic program. A few weeks ago, we looked at each varsity program’s worst-ever season, so it’s only fair to go on the positive side and look at their best seasons.

For any program that has won a national championship, only those seasons will be considered. You can argue that a tremendous season that didn’t result in a title can beat out a less-dominant season that did, but a championship is ultimately the end goal of a season. Try telling Tom Brady that the 2007 Patriots were better than the 2018 Patriots.

Football – 1986 (Undefeated National Champions)

Penn State only claims two national championships in football, and while many will argue that the 1994 team should’ve been in this conversation, the powers that be have not yet claimed a season that absolutely should be recognized as a national championship.

Four years after winning its first consensus title under head coach Joe Paterno, Penn State returned much of its production from a strong 1985 season and turned it into a season to remember. Ranked No. 6 in the preseason AP Poll, it coasted through an early-season schedule that included Temple, East Carolina, Boston College, and Rutgers before surviving its first scare against Cincinnati.

After demolishing Syracuse, the Nittany Lions faced one of the most daunting tasks imaginable, going on the road to face No. 2 Alabama. While the Crimson Tide was favored, Penn State jumped in front with a pair of touchdown runs in the second quarter and coasted to a 23-3 win, holding Alabama quarterback Mike Shula to the worst game of his career.

The rest of the regular season would feature a shutout victory in Morgantown against West Virginia, a blowout win against Pittsburgh, a close win in South Bend against Notre Dame, and a big scare against Maryland, where the Terrapins scored a touchdown with 15 seconds left and were a two-point conversion from tying the game and putting the Nittany Lions’ national championship hopes in jeopardy, only to be stopped on the conversion.

For the second straight year and third time in five years, Penn State played for a national championship at the 1987 Fiesta Bowl, facing off against dominant upstart Miami (FL), led by Jimmy Johnson. In one of the most-viewed bowl games ever, D.J. Dozier scored a go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter, but Penn State’s defense was on its heels in the final minute. On fourth and goal, Heisman Trophy winner Vinny Testaverde dropped back and threw his fifth interception of the game into the hands of Pete Giftopoulos to clinch the title for the Nittany Lions.

Honorable mention to the 1912 unclaimed title, where the Nittany Lions outscored their opponents by a blistering 285-6 margin. The lone points they gave up were a touchdown in a 29-6 win over Cornell. The biggest blowout in the 8-0 campaign was 71-0 over Villanova.

Men’s Basketball – 1953-54 (Third Place)

It might be hard to believe, given the state of the program, but Penn State did once make the Final Four. Back in 1954, in the final year of head coach Elmer Gross’ career, he elevated a team that had been on the cusp of contention and elevated it to one of the best in the nation.

Penn State coasted to a 14-5 regular season, but didn’t pick up any signature wins along the way. The best team it beat in the regular season was a Penn team that didn’t make the NCAA Tournament. Regardless, the Nittany Lions won their first game against Toledo and moved on to the second round to face just their second-ranked opponent of the season, outlasting LSU, 78-70.

Now in the Elite Eight, Penn State stunned No. 6 Notre Dame, ending its 18-game winning streak, to make the Final Four and take on La Salle, where the journey ended in a 69-54 defeat. Back then, there was a third-place game, so Penn State suited up one more time and took down No. 11 USC to secure a third-place finish as La Salle won the national championship.

Since then, only one Penn State team has even made the Sweet Sixteen (2000-01), but I have a sweet spot for Lamar Stevens and the 2019-20 team, which was once ranked No. 9 in the nation and never got to write its March Madness story. Ahead of the Big Ten Tournament, before the season was abruptly ended by the COVID-19 pandemic, it was considered a No. 6 seed. That’s a prime position to make a run.

Women’s Basketball – 1999-00 (Final Four)

New Lady Lions head coach Tanisha Wright is looking to restore the program to the glory days of when she was in college, but right before she enrolled at Penn State, the program reached new heights that haven’t been explored since.

Opening the season ranked No. 10 under longtime head coach Rene Portland, the Lady Lions lost their first two ranked games before getting a statement win at home against No. 6 Auburn in December to charge a 12-game winning streak that included a historic 65-point beatdown of Northwestern. They’d only drop one more game for the rest of the regular season, an upset loss to Michigan State at home, winning 22 of 23 before losing to Purdue in the Big Ten Championship Game.

Despite needing an at-large bid, the Lady Lions were a No. 2 seed and won their first two games before barely surviving Iowa State in the Sweet Sixteen to set up a Regional Final clash with Louisiana Tech. The 31-2 Bulldogs were no match for Lisa Shepherd’s 25-point performance, as Penn State blew them out, 86-65, to make its first-ever Final Four.

The dream run would come to an end in a rematch against No. 1 UConn. After winning by 13 in Disney World at the Honda Elite Four Classic, the Huskies prevailed once again with a 22-point victory behind 19 points by Sue Bird. They’d win the national championship a few nights later.

Men’s Hockey – 2024-25 (Frozen Four)

There’s an argument that you could use the only Penn State team to win a Big Ten title, as the 2019-20 team went 20-10-4 and was the Big Ten regular-season champion, but the lack of a postseason makes it hard to visualize what could’ve been.

Instead, it’s the memorable 2024-25 season that started as a disaster and ended in triumph. After an injury to star goaltender Arsenii Sergeev led to an early-season Big Ten play tailspin, the Nittany Lions managed to rebound from an 0-8-1 start in conference play to go 12-2-3 over their next 17 games and move them far enough up the Pairwise that they’d only need to beat Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament to get into the dance.

While Yost Ice Arena has frequently been a house of horrors, it wasn’t in March. Penn State swept Michigan in the best-of-three, powered by a JJ Wiebusch hat trick and a SportsCenter Top-10 overtime winner goal.

Still, that late-season run only got the Nittany Lions in by the skin of their teeth, but they drew some great fortune in being able to “host” the Allentown Regional as the No. 4 seed, giving them a home-ice advantage that lifted them to a 5-1 win over top-seed Maine in the first round. Two days later, they were locked in a heated overtime battle with UConn, ultimately prevailing on a Matt DiMarsico game-winner.

Penn State would make it to St. Louis for its first-ever Frozen Four, but would lose to Boston University, 3-1.

Women’s Hockey – 2025-26 (Frozen Four)

One year after the men’s team broke through to the Frozen Four after years of knocking on the door, the best team that head coach Jeff Kampersal has ever had followed them up.

The women’s hockey team didn’t start the season in a massive rut, but rather dominated the entire season. In a weaker AHA, it rolled through conference play and even picked up top-10 non-conference wins over Cornell, St. Lawrence, and Northeastern. By the end of the regular season, it was 22-2 in AHA play, rolling to a regular-season and conference tournament title.

By virtue of hosting the Frozen Four, Penn State did not play a single game outside Pegula Ice Arena after February 7. After getting a first-round bye in the NCAA Tournament, it dispatched of UConn in the Regional Final to advance to the semifinals against No. 2 Wisconsin.

Against a team full of Olympians and national champions, Penn State struck early and stayed close throughout with great goaltending by Katie DeSa and a great power play. A late breakaway game-tying goal by Tessa Janecke forced overtime, but Wisconsin struck on the power play just a minute in, ending the season in heartbreak.

Absolute SCENES here at Pegula #WeAre #HockeyValley pic.twitter.com/rmOVZXWItG

— Penn State Women’s Hockey (@PennStateWHKY) March 21, 2026

Wrestling – Any Of The Last Three Seasons (Undefeated National Champions)

How can we choose only one?

Cael Sanderson has raised the bar so spectacularly high for Penn State wrestling that they’ve broken the NCAA Championships scoring record in three consecutive seasons. Each season has its own flavor of dominance, so you can take your pick from the three seasons below:

• 2023-24: Penn State wins the NCAA Championships by a record-breaking 100 points behind four individual national champions. Braeden Davis, Levi Haines, Mitchell Mesenbrink, Aaron Brooks, and Greg Kerkvliet all win Big Ten titles, while Haines, Brooks, Kerkvliet, and Carter Starocci win national titles. Four other Nittany Lions were All-Americans, with two finishing in second (Mesenbrink and Beau Bartlett), while Tyler Kasak finished third and Bernie Truax finished fifth.
• 2024-25: Penn State breaks the NCAA Championships points record again, despite only getting two national champions (Mesenbrink, Starocci). What history did it set this time? All 10 wrestlers were All-Americans. Josh Barr finished second, Bartlett, Kasak, Haines, Luke Lilledahl, and Shayne Van Ness all placed third, Davis finished fifth, and Kerkvliet finished sixth. It’s the second time in NCAA history that a team has placed 10 wrestlers in one tournament.
• 2025-26: It broke the points record again this year, but got four individual champions out of it (Mesenbrink, Lilledahl, Barr, and Haines). While two wrestlers missed All-American status, four others finished no worse than fourth, as Van Ness and Rocco Welsh finished second, PJ Duke finished third, and Marcus Blaze finished fourth.

Baseball – 1957 (National Runners-Up)

While we know the SEC and Big 12 hold many of college baseball’s premier powers in 2026, there was a time when Northern teams dominated baseball. The Big Ten hasn’t won a College World Series since Ohio State in 1966, but it was the sixth Big Ten team to win one in 14 years. While not in the Big Ten at the time, Penn State nearly added its name to that list.

In 1957, under longtime head coach Joe Bedenk, the Nittany Lions went 17-0 in the regular season and won 10 of those games by at least eight runs. In the District 2 Region of the NCAA Tournament, Penn State outlasted Manhattan before beating St. John’s by five runs to advance to the College World Series.

After back-to-back wins to open the CWS over Florida State and Texas, the Nittany Lions were finally defeated by California and pushed into the consolation bracket. After outlasting Notre Dame to improve to 22-1, Penn State got a chance to get revenge on California in the College World Series Championship Game, but lost 1-0. It finished the season 22-2, and both losses were in shutout variety against Cal. Despite this, future Phillies first baseman and Nittany Lion Cal Emery was named Most Outstanding Player.

Penn State hasn’t made the College World Series since, but made it to the Super Regionals in 2000. After prevailing in the Montclair Regional with a 3-1 record, the Nittany Lions were unceremoniously swept by Texas in Austin, finishing the season with a program-record 45 wins.

Softball – 2011 (NCAA Tournament Regional Hosts)

Penn State softball has never advanced further than regionals in the NCAA Tournament, but it has had seasons where it has come close.

In 2011, under head coach Robin Petrini, the Nittany Lions went 31-24-1 in an up-and-down season that saw some big wins and some rough losses. By the time May came around, they had not only earned a berth to the NCAA Tournament, but also got a chance to host it in State College despite not receiving a seed.

Despite having home-field advantage, Penn State lost to Fordham in the very first game and suddenly had to run the table to advance to the Gainesville Super Regional. It eliminated Albany and got revenge on Fordham, but ran into No. 13 Oregon in the Regional Final. Needing to beat them twice to move on, it lost 3-1 in the first and only game.

The team has also won two games in the NCAA Tournament in 2001, 2002, 2005, and 2006, but lost in the Regional Final in all four years.

Men’s Lacrosse – 2019 (Final Four)

Under Jeff Tambroni, Penn State men’s lacrosse has made the Final Four three times, but hasn’t been able to fully get over the hump. The closest they came to that? 2019.

The 2019 team had a penchant for winning close games, as it often found a second gear in the clutch to pull off big wins, including a one-goal win over Penn and a three-goal win over Maryland en route to a 12-1 regular season.

After running the table in the Big Ten Tournament with a blowout win over Rutgers and an 18-17 overtime win over John Hopkins, the Nittany Lions entered the NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 overall seed with just one regular-season loss against No. 5 Yale.

Well, they’d have a date with Yale in the Final Four. After beating UMBC and No. 8 Loyola (MD) by 22 combined goals, they looked to avenge that early-season loss to the Bulldogs, but they were unsuccessful. The team’s best-ever season to that point ended in a whimper, as Yale jumped out to a 10-2 lead in the first quarter and held on late, 21-17. They’d lose to No. 3 Virginia in the National Championship Game.

Women’s Lacrosse – 1989 (National Champions)

While the men’s team continues to hunt for its first title, the women’s team has a pair of banners from the 1980s.

The better of those two teams came in 1989. After winning the title in 1987, the Nittany Lions were taken down in the 1988 title game by Temple, ruining their hopes of going back-to-back. They’d respond by opening the 1989 season with 12 consecutive wins by an average margin of 10 goals before losing by two to Princeton in mid-April.

They rebounded with five consecutive wins to close the regular season, which not only earned them an NCAA Tournament berth at 17-1 but also a first-round bye. They would get revenge on Temple, 9-3, in the semifinals, but wouldn’t be able to fully avenge that regular-season loss to Princeton, as undefeated Harvard took down the Tigers. In a close championship match, Penn State outlasted Harvard, 7-6, to win its second title in three years.

Men’s Soccer – 1979 (Third Place)

Penn State men’s soccer is hoping that new head coach Rob Dow can replicate what he did at Vermont and bring the program its first national championship in the tournament era. Prior to 1970, Penn State had a claim to 11 national championships from 1926-51, including a pair of Soccer Bowl victories in the early-1950s that served as a precursor.

The best season the program has had in modern times dates back to 1979, the only time in its history it advanced past the quarterfinals, losing on six other occasions.

Under head coach Walter Bahr, Penn State finished the regular season on an eight-game winning streak, with three of those games being decided by at least three goals, to earn a first-round bye into the NCAA Tournament.

In the first two games, both played at home, it outscored Princeton and Indiana, 5-1, to advance to its first-ever College Cup. It was there that it suffered just its fourth loss of the season to SIU-E, losing 1-2 in the semifinals. Still, it rebounded to beat Columbia in the third-place match to finish the season on a high note.

Women’s Soccer – 2015 (National Champions)

Penn State women’s soccer has not missed an NCAA Tournament in 30 years and has advanced to the second round every year since 1998. That’s consistency.

Still, it’s only ever run the table once: 2015.

Under head coach Erica Dambach, it opened the season with a choppy 3-1-1 record, and it took a while to find its groove. While it made an early-season statement against No. 2 Stanford, it lacked a strong victory in the next two months, leading up to a road loss to No. 25 Rutgers to drop them to 11-3-2.

It would be the last match the Nittany Lions lost all season. After winning the next two regular-season games to get a share of the Big Ten regular-season title, they outscored their opponents 6-1 across three conference tournament games to enter the NCAA Tournament as a No. 1 seed.

Another crazy note: the Big Ten Tournament First Round victory over Illinois was the last goal they gave up all season. Goalkeepers Emily Oleksiuk and Britt Eckerstrom did not allow a goal in over 700 consecutive minutes to end the season, closing the year with eight consecutive shutouts.

After blasting their first three opponents by at least four goals, they won closer matches to win the title, which included getting revenge on Rutgers in the College Cup Semifinal and beating Duke in the final behind a 72nd-minute goal by Raquel Rodriguez.

Field Hockey – 1980 (Undefeated National Champions)

Field hockey was not fully under the NCAA umbrella until 1982, so it’s difficult to properly judge it when Penn State won the national championship in 1980 and 1981, but hasn’t won one since. Still, the dominance of the 1980 team deserves to be represented.

Under head coach Gillian Rattray, Penn State did not lose any of its 24 games, only tying two en route to a 22-0-2 national championship. In 17 of its 22 wins, it held its opponent scoreless, including a streak of 10 in a row.

That streak finally ended in the AIAW Semifinal, when the Nittany Lions had to outlast Delaware, 3-2 in overtime. After taking down California in the championship, 2-1, they had completed their masterpiece. The next year, the NCAA finally started sponsoring field hockey, and while Penn State won the AIAW in 1981 again, they’d be pulled under the umbrella by 1982.

Men’s Volleyball – 2008 (National Champions)

Legendary head coach Mark Pavlik has coached a lot of great teams at Penn State, but no season was more dominant and victorious than 2008.

In 27 regular-season matches, the Nittany Lions earned 20 sweeps and only dropped one match, a four-set stunner against George Mason after an 18-0 start to the season. But with a 26-1 regular season record, Penn State stormed through the EIVA Tournament with back-to-back sweeps, including getting revenge on George Mason in the final.

Penn State took down Ohio State in four sets in the national semifinal to face off against Pepperdine. Looking for their first title in 14 years, the Nittany Lions dropped the first set, 30-27, but rallied to win a lengthy second set and coasted from there, capping off a dominant 30-1 season with a national championship.

Women’s Volleyball – 2008 (Undefeated National Champions)

2008 was a good year for Penn State volleyball, folks.

For only the second time in history, a university swept both men’s and women’s volleyball in the same year. Somehow, the dominance that the men displayed was overshadowed by the unfathomable dominance of Russ Rose’s women’s team.

In 32 regular-season matches, the Nittany Lions played 96 total sets and won all of them. In the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, they annihilated Long Island and Yale, with the closest set of either matchup being 25-18.

In the third round, they swept Western Michigan, with the closest set being 25-19. They got a bigger challenge in the Regional Final against California, but still swept them to advance to the Final Four.

It was there that they’d finally lose a set, as Nebraska avoided a sweep with a 25-15 win in the third set to end the team’s unfathomable 110-set winning streak to start the year. The Cornhuskers miraculously forced a fifth set and came close to pulling off the upset, but lost 15-11 in the fifth set.

That was the only time they were tested all season. Stanford would put up a fight, not losing any set by more than five points in the final, but would be swept to cap off a dominant, 38-0 season. The Nittany Lions went 114-2 in the 116 sets they played that season. It’s possibly the most dominant season in college sports history.