Penn State vs. Villanova
Penn State and Villanova have 11 meetings on file, the first in 1902; Penn State leads the series 7–3–1 in the games on file. Over the last 10 meetings it’s Penn State 6–3, and Penn State has won the last 2. Share
- Penn State wins
- 7
- Villanova wins
- 3
- Ties
- 1
- Earliest on file
- 1902
- Longest streak
- 3 Penn State
- Current streak
- 2 Penn State
- Last 10 meetings
- Penn State 6–3
- Most recent
- 2025
The series at a glance
| ’0 | ’1 | ’2 | ’3 | ’4 | ’5 | ’6 | ’7 | ’8 | ’9 | W–L | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1900s | 2–0 | ||||||||||
| 1910s | 2–0–1 | ||||||||||
| 1930s | 1–1 | ||||||||||
| 1940s | 0–1 | ||||||||||
| 1950s | 0–1 | ||||||||||
| 2020s | 2–0 |
- Average margin
- 24.6 points; 1 decided by one score (8 or fewer)
- At Penn State
- 7–2–1 Penn State’s record at home
- Neutral sites
- 0–1 Penn State first
- Shutouts
- 5
Every meeting on file, as played. Ranks are the AP poll’s going in.
Games that tell the story
- Penn State’s biggest win1912: Penn State 71, Villanova 0by 71 points
- Villanova’s biggest win1949: Villanova 27, Penn State 6by 21 points
Both programs through the years
Our Elo rating at the end of each season, a measure of how strong a team was, not a forecast; 1500 is an average FBS team.
Stars of the series
Biggest days
| Sean Clifford Penn State | 19 of 26, 401 yards, 4 TD, 1 INT | 2021 Passing |
Biggest days: the week’s best individual games by our big-days rule, from box scores (2004 on).
From the newspapers
Public-domain newspapers from the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America, found through the American Stories dataset (Dell and Harvard, CC BY 4.0). The earliest meetings with a story on file; each game’s page has the full text.
Every game
| Sep 13, 2025 | 2Penn State 52, Villanova 6 | at Penn State | ||
| Sep 25, 2021 | 6Penn State 38, Villanova 17 | at Penn State | ||
| Oct 6, 1951 | Villanova 20, Penn State 14 | Neutral site | ||
| Sep 24, 1949 | Villanova 27, Penn State 6 | at Penn State | ||
| Oct 10, 1936 | Villanova 13, Penn State 0 | at Penn State | ||
| Nov 9, 1935 | Penn State 27, Villanova 13 | at Penn State | ||
| Nov 9, 1912 | Penn State 71, Villanova 0 | at Penn State | ||
| Oct 21, 1911 | Penn State 18, Villanova 0 | at Penn State | ||
| Oct 29, 1910 | Penn State 0, Villanova 0 | at Penn State | ||
| Oct 28, 1905 | Penn State 29, Villanova 0 | at Penn State | ||
| Oct 11, 1902 | Penn State 32, Villanova 0 | at Penn State |
Every game is listed as played on the field.