Penn State knows the time is now in its quest to finally crack the College Football Playoff

The odds certainly are in Penn State’s favor.

While 10-win seasons have been pretty easy to come by, a spot in the College Football Playoff has not. Coach James Franklin and the Nittany Lions perennially find themselves in a New Year’s Six bowl game — but on the outside looking in at a run for the national championship.

This season could be different, with impact returners within every unit — and on the sidelines with the addition of new offensive and defensive coordinators. Plus, there is the expansion from a four-team playoff system to an all-new 12-team CFP, opening the door for more programs like Penn State that have always been on the cusp. But it does make for what could be a longer sprint to the finish.

“I would say the first thing is the length of the season … we have always talked about trying to create depth. That was always important playing in a conference like the Big Ten,” Franklin said Saturday at Penn State’s annual media day. “It’s magnified now, right? You have the potential of 17 games … so how are you going to do that? I think that coupled with some of the rules changes over the last couple years … [it comes down to] making sure we are doing a really good job of rotating and playing guys for the fourth quarter, for late in the season — and now a playoff run.”

The CFP has been the one thing to elude Franklin, now in his 11th year at the helm.

The preseason coaches poll dropped Monday, with Penn State in the No. 9 spot as one of six Big Ten teams to crack the list. The Associated Press preseason top 25 should be released next week.

» READ MORE: We tested the EA Sports' College Football 25 against these three Temple players who are 'in the game'

Three conference teams, Ohio State (No. 2), Oregon (No. 3), and Michigan (No. 8), were ranked higher than the Nittany Lions. Two of those programs, the Wolverines and the Ducks, are not on Penn State’s schedule this season because of conference realignment in the Big Ten, with Oregon, alongside former Pac-12 schools USC and UCLA, joining the now 18-team, coast-to-coast conference.

Penn State hosts Ohio State on Nov. 2.

Franklin isn’t looking past an early test as Penn State goes on the road for the season opener against West Virginia on Aug. 31 (noon, Fox 29).

“I have probably more respect for West Virginia than anybody just because I’ve played there so many times and I know what Mountaineer football means to the state of West Virginia,” said Franklin, who also noted he doesn’t expect a letdown from the Mountaineers’ 9-4 finish last season. “I think it’s going to be a great game. I think it’s going to be a great environment, and then on top of that, the way they ended their season, right? They ended up winning nine games and the quarterback [Garrett Greene] ended up playing really well and finished the season on a high note. So they got a ton of confidence coming into this year because of that.”

Defensive end Abdul Carter, the La Salle College High School alumnus who was announced as one of 75 players on the preseason watch list for the Bronko Nagurski Award, was one of four Nittany Lions who cracked College Football’s “Freaks List,” released by The Athletic on Tuesday.

Carter ranks No. 12 on the 101-player list that has been around since 2005, dedicated to highlighting the top players in Division I college football, across both the Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision. A first-team All-Big Ten selection, the Glenside native has racked up 10½ sacks, leading a Penn State defense lauded as one of the best in the nation.

» READ MORE: Penn State has high expectations and James Franklin is embracing that

Defensive lineman Zane Durant, kicker Gabriel Nwosu, and running back Nick Singleton, from Shillington, Pa., join Carter as the other Nittany Lions on the list.