The Penn State football schedule for the 2024 and 2025 seasons in the new-look Big Ten were released on Thursday and here’s who the Nittany Lions will play.
With USC and UCLA getting added to the Big Ten, the football schedules for every conference team are going to take a strange shape. And for the Penn State football schedule, that had many Nittany Lions fans wondering who their protected opponents would be and what the flex schedule would end up looking like.
As it turns out, Penn State football doesn’t yet have a protected opponent. They do have three two-play opponents — programs that the Nittany Lions will play a home-and-home against in the 2024 and 2025 seasons — in Michigan State, Rutgers and Nebraska. But in terms of protected rivalries and matchups, they were shut out.
The rest of the 2024 and 2025 Big Ten schedule was released on Thursday, though, including the Penn State football schedule for conference play with the home and away opponents for each season. So let’s take a look at each and briefly unpack what it could mean for the Nittany Lions.
2024 Penn State football schedule: First Big Ten trip to USC
- Aug. 31: at West Virginia
- Sept. 7: vs. Bowling Green
- Sept. 21: vs. Kent State
- TBD: at Minnesota
- TBD: at Purdue
- TBD: at USC
- TBD: at Wisconsin
- TBD: vs. Illinois
- TBD: vs. Maryland
- TBD: vs. Ohio State
- TBD: vs. UCLA
- TBD: vs. Washington
2025 Penn State football schedule: Ohio State headlines road slate
It’s the inverse in the 2025 season for James Franklin’s team as Penn State will have just four home games and five road games. Let’s take a look at that Big Ten slate with the home-road splits lined up like that.
- Aug. 30: vs. Nevada
- Sept. 13: vs. Villanova
- TBD: Unscheduled non-conference game
- TBD: at Iowa
- TBD: at Michigan State
- TBD: at Ohio State
- TBD: at Rutgers
- TBD: at UCLA
- TBD: vs. Indiana
- TBD: vs. Nebraska
- TBD: vs. Northwestern
- TBD: vs. Oregon
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