Penn State Football’s 2021 full revised schedule, Big Ten announces changes

The Big Ten conference announced schedule changes for the 2021 football season Friday afternoon, shifting around the dates of games but not the opponents Penn State Football will play.

The Big Ten announced schedule changes for next year’s football season, but none of the opponents on Penn State Football’s schedule changed, just the dates for a few key games.

The Nittany Lions will still open the season with a road trip to Madison to take on the Wisconsin Badgers. Most notably, the date of their clash with Ohio State has been moved up, and once again will take place on Halloween weekend, Saturday October 30th.

The shift in the the trip to Columbus means that Penn State Football will no longer play back-to-back games against Ohio State and Michigan like they were originally scheduled to. They will still host the Wolverines in Happy Valley on November 13th.

What should be a highly talked about and anticipated ‘revenge” game for coach James Franklin‘s squad with the Hoosiers was also effected in today’s changes, as that game with Indiana moves from October 30th to earlier in the season on October 5th. Meaning the team will play Indiana and at Iowa in consecutive weeks, making the already tough front end of their schedule even more treacherous.

The battle for the Land Grant trophy has also been moved, as Penn State Football’s trip to East Lansing will now be the season finale, a place where many fans of each squad enjoy the game being played anyhow. The Saturday after Thanksgiving is seen as rivalry week around college football, so it makes good sense to have those two play for such an iconic trophy that week.

Because of that, that means the Rutgers game moves up one week and the Nittany Lions will finish the 2021 campaign with Rutgers and Michigan State.

Next season’s schedule may be the toughest the Nittany Lions have played under James Franklin, as they will travel to arguably the two best teams in the Big Ten West, and will also play host to Auburn in week 3 in the first leg of their home-and-home series for 2021 and 2022.

Here is the Nittany Lions’ full 2021 schedule:

Week 1: @ Wisconsin

Week 2: vs. Ball State

Week 3: vs. Auburn

Week 4: vs. Villanova

Week 5: vs. Indiana

Week 6: @ Iowa

Week 7: BYE

Week 8: vs. Illinois

Week 9: @ Ohio State

Week 10: @ Maryland

Week 11: vs. Michigan

Week 12: vs. Rutgers

Week 13: @ Michigan State