25 days and counting…
By now Penn State fans are fully aware how favorable the first half of Penn State’s football schedule looks. Penn State will not leave the state of Pennsylvania until mid-October when it heads to Columbus, Ohio to take on the defending national champion Ohio State Buckeyes. The lone road contest in the first six games of the year will be played in Philadelphia against Temple in what should amount to a home-away-from-home game for the Nittany Lions. Some have ridiculed Penn State’s schedule, and to an extent that is fair given the strategic scheduling to stack the odds of a winning record in Penn State’s favor. However, it should be mentioned once more just what logic went into scheduling the way Penn State did for 2015.
First, remember the game against Rutgers was originally scheduled as part of a home-and-home agreement between the two schools before Rutgers received an invitation to join the Big Ten. Last year’s game and this year’s game were kept on the schedule and upgraded to Big Ten East Division contests rather than having to worry about plugging a non-conference scheduling slot so late in the scheduling game. Keep in mind non-conference games are typically filled years in advance, so Penn State and Rutgers could have been fishing in a shallow pool of available opponents had they moved their September meetings.
Second, keep in mind at the time Army was added to the schedule Penn State was in the midst of the NCAA sanction phase of the program. Penn State added Army to the 2015 schedule on September 3, 2014. As it turned out, the NCAA lifted the postseason ban on the Nittany Lions six days later. Wins were expected to come at a premium for the program amid significant scholarship reductions and a postseason ban. This would have been the fourth and final season of those sanction terms had the NCAA not lifted them entirely, and wins were going to be needed just to keep hopes high whenever possible. Bringing Army to Beaver Stadium may not have been attractive from a fan standpoint, but the likelihood of celebrating a win may have been worth it for the program. Plus, it is cool to see a service academy team in Beaver Stadium. I actually hope Air Force makes a visit next.
San Diego State was also added to the schedule in August of 2013. Remember that this was still when Penn State was on a postseason ban (that was not lifted until the following month), so the thinking was still to bring in opponents that could likely result in a win for Penn State. The Aztecs are far from the bottom feeders of the Mountain west Conference though (I have them winning the West Division in the MWC this season), but most casual fans are not aware of where San Diego State stands among college football outside of the power conferences. It may not be Stanford, but it is also not San Jose State.
Penn State will face a few good tests in the first half of the season before going to Ohio State for a potential match-up of unbeatens, but at worst Penn State should be taking a 5-1 record to Columbus.
Around the Big Ten
Braxton Miller is changing his jersey number at Ohio State… Wisconsin’s offensive line is actually a legitimate question mark for the Badgers… The Student Section takes a look at Connor Cook and Michigan State’s offense… Michigan State is ranked No. 15 by the folks at The Student Section…
Around the Nation
USC is getting a ton of hype this preseason. I’m not quite buying it, but should you?… Some random plays from college football’s past to get you excited for a new season.
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