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Penn State set to learn 2024-2025 Big Ten opponents and new scheduling model on Thursday

Greg Pickelby:Greg Pickel•06/07/23•

GregPickel

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Penn State coach James Franklin at Big Ten Media Days in Indianapolis, Ind.

Penn State football will learn its Big Ten schedule for the 2024 and 2025 seasons on Thursday. The conference announced on Wednesday that it will share each team’s home and away opponents for those years and also unveil its new scheduling model then as the league readies to welcome USC and UCLA into the fold next summer.

The Big Ten will also make other news on Thursday during a “special edition” of ‘B1G Live’ at 4:30 p.m. ET on the Big Ten Network. First-year commissioner Tony Petitti, and newly-appointed chief operating officer Kerry Kenny, will join the show. So, too, will Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith.

There has been talk about eliminating the current East and West division setup. Whether or not the conference will is expected to be revealed on Thursday, as well. Additionally, the number of league games — the current nine or a move back to eight — moving forward will also be declared. So, too, will anything related to “protected rivalries,” such as Ohio State and Michigan playing every year, for example.

The Lions and the rest of their Big Ten brethren currently only know their 2023 Big Ten schedule. The conference announced a schedule through 2025 back in 2018. But, it was forced to pull it down with the Trojans and Bruins set to come on board.

How will the Big Ten’s decision impact Penn State?

This is the big question fans and media members alike will debate until the announcement is made. Who Penn State’s protected rivals are and whether there are two or three of them is one issue to consider. Another is how often the Lions will trek to California, and vice versa, to face USC and UCLA over the 2024 and 2025 seasons.

Beyond that, the elimination of divisions, which is expected, would seemingly open up an easier path for Penn State to the set-to-be-expanded College Football Playoff. The Lions, in all likelihood, would not play Michigan and Ohio State every year as they currently does as a member of the East division. That would be a win for the program and other East division members. That side of the conference has won 10 consecutive conference crowns

“As we look, whether it’s the Big Ten East or whether it’s the SEC West, they’re out of balance,” Lions coach James Franklin said on The Penn State Coaches Show in November. “I think a lot of times, people say, well from a historical perspective, it all evens out. No it doesn’t. It hasn’t.”

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