Midweek Musings - What Do You Hope Penn State’s Schedule Looks Like?

With the announcement that the Big Ten is planning on returning to football this fall, the next question becomes “what does the schedule look like”?

It’s been floated that the season will start on October 24th, span 8 weeks of a “regular season” and then include a “+1” game the same day as the championship game. So the same day that the championship is being decided, everyone else gets a game matched up with their peer in the opposite division.

With that in mind, what is your ideal schedule for Penn State? Regardless of home and away, here’s what I got:

• October 24: Rutgers
• October 31: Ohio State
• November 7: Indiana
• November 14: Iowa
• November 21: Michigan State
• November 28: Maryland
• December 5: Michigan
• December 12: Illinois
• December 19: Wisconsin/Minnesota

I think this keeps most of the crossovers that Penn State had set up, though if the B1G wanted to throw Northwestern in there instead of Iowa, I wouldn’t complain.

With this schedule, we start with a creampuff, then get OSU early in the season. Let’s let the defense do its thing when it should still be ahead of the offense, and hopefully limit Justin Fields and co. A game against Indiana is no joke, but it felt to me like last year was their best bet, and they couldn’t quite pull it off.

The game against Iowa (supposedly) being back at Beaver Stadium will be nice, and MSU-Maryland back-to-back is a chance to lick some wounds. Michigan a bit later in the season would be tough, but I like the idea of PSU’s rush-heavy offense in December against Michigan’s depleted offense. Wrap up the “regular season” with Illinois, and then take on the peers from the west, most likely either Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Ideally, that game would be in the B1G Championship, but I like those two to finish 1-2 in the West, and I like Penn State to finish no worse than second in the East. I can’t say I’d hate a revenge game against the Gophers for the B1G trophy, would you?

So what say you? How would you like the season to shake out for the Lions?