The Big Ten announced complete conference schedules for the 2024 through the 2028 seasons on Thursday afternoon giving Penn State a better sense of what its future will hold moving forward. As you might expect looking at five seasons worth of games can be a bit daunting to digest so hat’s why we’ve broken down Penn State’s future schedules into some numbers to know ahead of a brave new world that is an 18-team Big Ten.
0: The Big Ten is moving forward with a plan to ensure traditional rivalry games are still part of the scheduling framework with annually protected matchups. Penn State is the only team in the conference without a protected rivalry. There’s not really an obvious choice for the Nittany Lions in this case, even if Ohio State and Michigan continue to be the marquee games fo the year for Penn State. All told more variety in the Nittany Lions’ schedule might not be the worst thing in the world.
11: Penn State will face 11 teams three times over the span of the 2024 through 2028 stretch. They include Ohio State, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan State, Purdue, Rutgers, Wisconsin, Oregon, UCLA, Washington and USC. The rest of the teams in the Big Ten will face Penn State twice, including Michigan which won’t visit Beaver Stadium after this year’s clash until 2027. That stretch isn’t the longest though, Penn State hosted Michigan in 2001 and didn’t see the Wolverines in State College again until 2006.
6: Of the teams Penn State faces three times over the new scheduling span, six of those 11 will face Penn State in State College two out of the three meetings. Ohio State, Indiana, Maryland, Oregon, UCLA and Washington will all have to travel to Happy Valley twice while Penn State will head on the road to face each of those teams just once over the five year scheduling period. Meanwhile, Michigan State, Purdue, Rutgers, Wisconsin and USC will all host Penn State twice while traveling to State College just once.
2024 and 2028: These are the only two years Penn State will play three of the four newest Big Ten members. In 2024 the Nittany Lions will travel to USC while hosting Washington and UCLA. Then in 2028 Penn State will head to USC while hosting Oregon and UCLA. The years in between Penn State will face two of the new four Big Ten programs.
2026 and 2027: The only two years in this span that Penn State will face Michigan. The first will be in 2026 in Ann Arbor while Michigan will make a return trip to State College in 2027.
5: The number of teams currently in the AP Top 10 that Penn State will face during the regular season between 2023 and 2025. Michigan, Ohio State, USC, Washington and Oregon all fall within that range.
26%: Not counting bowl games, five of Penn State’s next 19 games will take place against teams currently in the Top 10 of the AP Poll. Of the next 60 regular season games currently scheduled, 14 of them will come against teams currently in the Top 10 of the AP Poll.
