After spending his first two collegiate seasons at Villanova, Ott, who redshirted his first season, announced his decision to transfer from the Wildcat program in late January of 2008. He began classes on Penn State's University Park campus shortly after and will be will be eligible to play for the Nittany Lions following the completion of finals in the 2008 fall semester. He will begin next season as a sophomore and have 2 ½ years of eligibility remaining at Penn State.

A skilled big man with excellent shooting touch, Ott redshirted the 2006-07 season at Villanova and played sparingly for Jay Wright's Wildcats in 2007-08 seeing action in four games, a total of 16 minutes of action and scoring three points. He last played in an 81-71 Villanova win at Syracuse on Jan. 26.

Ott was a 1,000-point scorer at Germantown Academy outside of Philadelphia, a school that produced such recent college standouts as Matt Walsh at Florida and Lee Melchionni at Duke. He helped a young team to a 17-12 record in his senior season. He averaged 14 points and 11 rebounds as a junior and improved to 19.2 points and 15 rebounds a game as a senior scoring 1,074 career points. He was recruited by Penn State, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Purdue, Notre Dame and Illinois among others out of high school. Ott is familiar with the Big Ten with his older brother, Ryan, and father, Michael, both attending Purdue.