Penn State Basketball: Big Ten Announces Full Conference Schedule

We knew who Penn State was playing in conference this season, and now we know when. The Big Ten just announced their full conference schedule, and Penn State opens its conference season on December second against the Iowa Hawkeyes at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Coming off a road game against NC State, Penn State will travel to Iowa then host Wisconsin before finishing out the non-conference portion of the schedule.

The Nittany Lions will play four of last season’s top teams in their first seven games, which, with Wisconsin and Maryland being the two traditional powers on the list, is not as bad as it has been in the past. The home/road split to start the season is actually pretty even, which bodes well for the Nittany Lions. Aside from having back-to-back road trips to NC State and Iowa, they have a good opening draw this time around. After they play Iowa and Wisconsin, they’ll have all of December to work out any kinks before they have to travel to College Park and face Maryland. Given that Penn State has usually opened its conference season as a sacrificial lamb to the better teams in the conference, this is an opportunity for the team to provide a change of pace to that trend.

Due to the nature of this season’s schedule, some games are really condensed. The Lions are playing a few games with just one day’s rest, and the bye weeks this season are only five days as opposed to the full seven. That said, Penn State only plays back to back road games once this season, which is definitely a departure from years past.

See the full schedule below.

December 2
at Iowa

December 4
vs Wisconsin

January 2
at Maryland

January 5
vs Northwestern

January 9
at Indiana

January 12
vs Nebraska

January 15
vs Minnesota

January 20
at Northwestern

January 25
at Ohio State

January 27
vs Rutgers

January 31
at Michigan State

February 3
vs Iowa

February 7
vs Maryland

February 11
at Illinois

February 15
vs Ohio State

February 18
at Purdue

February 21
vs Michigan

February 25
at Nebraska

For those interested, here’s the full conference schedule.