Things to like and dislike about Big Ten's scheduling system

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Let me say first off, to be perfectly frank, I hate that Penn State will not be playing Ohio State every year.

Maybe you disagree. Which is fine. I mean, hey, getting the Buckeyes off the schedule means the Nittany Lions won't have to play the Big Ten's best team every single year, something it has done annually since joining the league in 1993.

But let's be crystal clear here: Ohio State is Penn State's biggest rival, and has been for many years now.

What are your favorite Penn State football memories of the past two decades? How many of them include Ohio State?

The kick-6 stunner in 2016?

The Terrelle Pryor fumble game in 2008?

The Tamba Hali strip sack game in 2005?

We can make a case that those are three of the Lions' best 5-6 best wins this century.

And even when Penn State has lost to Ohio State -- which has been very frequent -- we've still gotten to see a lot of great games.

But alas, beginning in 2025, we will no longer see the Buckeyes on the schedule every year. Which is stunning, in all honesty, not just because it's always a great game, but because that showdown always produced sensational TV ratings for networks and the Big Ten.

So, for the league to choose not to protect that rivalry game doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense to me.

In fact, Penn State will have no protected rivalries under the Big Ten's new scheduling format, released Thursday.

Penn State loves to tout itself as being Unrivaled. That word has always been used by the athletic department with a sense of extreme pride, like Penn State doesn't need to have a rivalry of any kind in order to still be special.

There's a lot to be said for that, sure. As I've mentioned numerous times, Penn State can sell out Beaver Stadium playing against anybody, even if the opponent is 22 random dudes you find at Walmart.

But to deny that Ohio State is a true rival is pure folly. And arrogance. Fine, so you want to call yourself Unrivaled, well, it would be nice if you had more than one victory in the past 11 meetings against the one team on your schedule that matters most.

And can benefit you the most.

Ohio State has always been the barometer for Penn State, and beating the Buckeyes can do wonders for the Lions. Remember how, in 2016, the stunning upset on the kick-6 vaulted Penn State from No. 24 all the way up to No. 12 in the AP poll and re-energized the entire program?

Doing away with the annual game, to  me, is a major bummer.

What say you? Post in the comments.

NO PROTECTED RIVALRIES

We've spent a couple of years debating how the Big Ten schedule would look once the league does away with divisions, which will happen beginning in 2024 when USC and UCLA come on board.

I've always felt Ohio State and Michigan State would remain as protected rivalries. The annual game against the Spartans has been a consistent factor for both programs over the years, but that will now go by the wayside, as well.

We can all joke about the hideous Land Grant Trophy. But the reality is that Penn State vs. Michigan State has produced a lot of good games, and it would have been nice to see that continue.

Instead, Penn State has ZERO protected rivalries. Again, that's stunning.

2024 SCHEDULE

Here's a look at Penn State's 2024 Big Ten opponents:

Home: Michigan State, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, USC

Away: Indiana, Purdue, Rutgers, Wisconsin

WOW!!! That's an incredible home schedule, one that fans will absolutely love at Beaver Stadium.

We'll get to see USC come to Happy Valley, as well as the Buckeyes, Spartans and Cornhuskers. That's some enormous college football history right there with all those programs.

Everyone is going to be looking for Penn State to make the 12-team College Football Playoff in 2024. And while it's awesome to be playing those other traditional power programs, it's especially great that most of the games (save Wisconsin) will be at home.

2025 SCHEDULE

Here's the 2025 Big Ten slate:

Home: Illinois, Minnesota, Rutgers, UCLA

Away: Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, USC

Ugh, that conference home slate ain't so great, save for the first Big Ten matchup against the Bruins. But it will be Penn State's first trip to LA in Big Ten play, facing USC for the second year in a row.

But wait ... the other two home games scheduled for 2025 are against Nevada and Villanova. So, when you consider that along with the four conference games -- YIKES!!!!

Penn State is gonna have to add another non-conference game, and for the sake of pleasing fans, you'd have to think it would need to be some kind of name opponent. Because to charge the prices they charge, you can't roll out a home schedule that unappealing.

THE BOTTOM LINE

The word I'll use is random. As we move forward, Penn State's Big Ten schedule is going to look far more random than ever before, and we'll never quite know from year to year what to expect.

Yes, there could be awesome years like 2024 where the home schedule is fantastic. But that 2025 home schedule, let's hope we don't see too much of that kind of randomness.

Ultimately, not playing Ohio State and Michigan every year will be good for Penn State for one big reason. The goal will be getting to the College Football Playoff, and it certainly will help not having to deal with the Buckeyes and Wolverines every year. I would think that Penn State would play one of the two every year, but there does seem to be a very real possibility of having years where the Lions play neither.

What was the Big Ten thinking in all of this? Why not just give everyone three protected rivalry games? Well, as I've hinted at repeatedly over time, that would have been very difficult since some teams just don't have rivalries, so the league figured it didn't need to try and manufacture ones.

Take, for instance, Rutgers. It's not an apples to apples comparison between that and any other program in the Big Ten, so trying to schedule the Scarlet Knights the same as everybody else didn't make much sense.

That's how we got here. To the point where some teams will have protected rivalries, but the Lions will be going at it alone moving forward.

In that regard, Penn State will still be able to call itself Unrivaled. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's a good thing.