Who will Penn State football play during the 2024 and 2025 Big Ten seasons, and when will it go west first?
Penn State football now knows who it will face during Big Ten play during the 2024 and 2025 seasons. The conference announced its new scheduling format and each program’s next two years of home and away opponents on Thursday.
First things first: The Lions will play at league newcomer USC in 2025 and host it in 2024 while playing at incoming member UCLA in 2025.
Second, head coach James Franklin’s program will face Ohio State at home in 2024 and Michigan on the road in 2025.
Third, the program has zero protected rivalries. And, the conference is staying at nine conference games.
The Big Ten also announced on Thursday that it is getting rid of the East and West divisions starting with the 2024 season in favor of a singular conference model. That’s a win for the Lions, Buckeyes, and Wolverines, who routinely got in each other’s way on the road to the College Football Playoff by being forced to play annually as division opponents.
“The 2024 Big Ten football season will also debut the Flex Protect Plus model, which features a combination of protected opponents and rotating opponents for universities.” a news release said. “Each member institution will continue to play nine intraconference games per season, and teams will play every other conference opponent at least twice – once home and once away – in a four-year period.
Game dates were not released as part of this announcement. Those will be revealed at a later date.
Penn State 2024 Big Ten opponents
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Michigan State
Nebraska
Northwestern
Ohio State
USC
Away
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Nittany Lions 2025 Big Ten opponents
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James Franklin is focused on the present, not the future
Penn State coach James Franklin held his first news conference of the summer earlier Thursday afternoon. Naturally, he was asked to discuss the now-announced future Big Ten schedules. And, as expected, he kept his focus on the present instead of the future.
It’s above my paygrade,” Franklin said. “That’s a Pat question. That’s a commissioner question. I am excited and looking forward to getting prepared this year for this season for the schedule that we have, for West Virginia at our place to open the season. Those things are outside of my control. And really, right now, outside of my concern. When we have meetings as head coaches and ADs, we state our opinions, very similar to the opinions that I stated when I was in the SEC as the head coach as well. And at that point, the commissioner’s got to make a decision and move forward. It’s the same way here.
“For me to make the best decisions, I got to hear from the players, I got to hear from the staff, I got to hear from the coaches. But then ultimately, I got to make the best decision that I think is for Penn State, football specifically. So West Virginia, West Virginia, training camp, training camp, Manny versus Mike, Mike versus Manny, all that good stuff is really my focus.”
