Penn State's always gotten the short end of the scheduling stick in the annual Big Ten/ACC Challenge, save for a trip to Pittsburgh in 2013-14, and this year won't be much different. The Nittany Lions will host the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets per Jon Rothstein, the first Challenge meeting between the two schools since 2009:
Penn State will host Georgia Tech in next season's ACC/Big Ten Challenge, sources told @CBSSports.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) May 23, 2016
The Jackets are historically one of the ACC's bottom feeders, save for a Final Four and National Championship game appearance under Paul Hewitt in 2004. In fact, GT has only finished with a conference record above .500 once since the turn of the century, just as many as Penn State has in the B1G.
Tech leadership made the expected move of firing Brian Gregory this offseason, even though the Jackets won 20 games for the first time under the former Dayton coach. The surprise move came when Josh Pastner and his enormous buyout were brought in from Memphis, a program that was itching to make a coaching change but were hamstrung by the aforementioned buyout, reported by CBS' Gary Parrish to be $10.6 million.
Pastner will inherit a squad that lost four senior starters. No doubt Georgia Tech will be in rebuilding mode, especially in early December when the Challenge is typically held. Nonetheless, it's another high major opponent on Penn State's schedule and a winnable game at that. Here's an up-to-date glance at Penn State's non-con slate:
Penn State Basketball 2016-17 Schedule | |
---|---|
Date | Opponent |
11/11 | Marist |
11/15 | Grand Canyon |
11/19 | Duke (Neutral Site) |
11/20 | Cincinnati/Rhode Island (Neutral Site) |
TBD | Georgia Tech (B1G/ACC Challenge) |
12/10 | Pitt (Neutral Site) |
TBD | @ George Washington |
TBD | George Mason |