Why is Penn State football not scheduling future non-conference opponents?

In nine weeks, Penn State football kicks off the 2024 season with a highly anticipated road trip to Morgantown to face the West Virginia Mountaineers. The game is the return visit from last year’s matchup in Beaver Stadium, a series more than a decade in the making.

However, the Nittany Lions’ road matchup on August 31 will be the last of its kind for some time. Once a defining element of college football, marquee non-conference matchups have become less common as mega-leagues have taken over the sport. Penn State has not avoided this either, but the fact is clear as we look at the Nittany Lions’ out-of-conference matchups in the years to come.

Seismic change to college football

Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Penn State football is entering a new era of both the Big Ten and college football. Gone are the days of regionality and arbitrary ways of deciding a National Champion. Despite the name, the Big Ten will soon have 18 schools, with the addition of USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington from the now-defunct PAC 12 next month.

The expanded 12-team College Football Playoff has engulfed the entire month of December, with first-round matchups at the home venues of the higher seeds and the New Year’s Six bowls serving as the quarterfinals and semifinals.

The margin for error is now no longer razor-thin for teams to have a shot at winning a National Championship. For better or worse, the discussion shifts to determining the best two or three-loss teams when narrowing down who makes the CFP.

Who is currently on the Penn State football schedule?

Mandatory Credit: Matthew O’Haren-USA TODAY Sports

Historically, college football teams schedule non-conference games approximately a decade out. For instance, the Penn State football home-and-home series with West Virginia was scheduled back in September 2013.

But right now, the Nittany Lions’ future schedule looks relatively thin compared to other teams within the conference and the sport. While Penn State has its schedules filled through up until the 2028 season, the slate is notably light on reciprocal series, especially with Power Four competition.

The Nittany Lions don’t have a single Power Four non-conference opponent scheduled for the 2025 season. Next fall, Penn State is slated to take on Nevada, FIU, and Villanova to start the year.

Penn State football currently only has two future home-and-home series scheduled. The first is a two-game series with Temple in 2026 and 2027, which was agreed upon in August 2018.

The second is with Syracuse, a series scheduled in May 2022 and set for the 2027 and 2028 seasons. As it stands now, this is the only non-conference home-and-home the Nittany Lions are scheduled to play with a Power Four team through 2028.

Where are all the future home-and-home series?

Mandatory Credit: Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports

Given the historical trends, it’s rather unusual to have only future non-conference series scheduled within five years.

Pat Kraft was hired in April 2022; the Syracuse series was announced a few days later. However, outside of the addition of FIU to next year’s schedule in March, very few significant non-conference moves have been made since. It’s unclear whether this is an intentional decision based on conference realignment or something else.

With the CFP already at 12 teams and discussions for potential further expansion already underway, it’s not as crucial to be undefeated or a one-loss team entering the postseason.

However, Penn State also has to balance the strength of its non-conference schedule with the enhanced difficulty of the new-look Big Ten. A 10-game conference schedule could be on the way, likely making big-time non-conference games nothing but a fond memory for college football fans.

In recent years, Penn State football has taken the approach of scheduling historic regional rivals over going after big-name matchups. Pitt and West Virginia have both reappeared on the schedule within the last five years, with Syracuse making its return shortly.

But outside of Auburn in 2022, Penn State hasn’t left the Northeast footprint since 2010, when the Nittany Lions traveled to Tuscaloosa to play Alabama.

Future non-conference schedules are announced in a random manner, so perhaps we will have more clarity soon. But for now, it appears the only road trips that Penn State football fans can look forward to after this season are to Philadelphia and Syracuse.

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