How B1G changes rumored to be coming to Big Ten impact Penn State Football

Penn State Football could be the beneficiary of some big changes rumored to be coming to the Big Ten

Everyone knows the Big Ten’s divisions have been unbalanced since expansion and realignment in 2014, but that could be changing soon, as well as cutting down to 8 conference games in a season, as opposed to the current 9 games. These changes could make a big impact on Penn State Football

Iowa athletic director Gary Barta hinted that the changes could be coming in the near future.

Over the summer, the Big 10, ACC, and Pac-12 formed an informal alliance in response to the SEC’s addition of Oklahoma and Texas, and although there was no official word on what the alliance would entail, one of the potential changes that was mentioned was more out-of-conference scheduling between the 3 conferences.

Reducing to just eight conference games would make it easier for Big 10 teams to potentially schedule two non-conference games (1 against the ACC and 1 against the Pac-12) per season.

The ACC already plays an eight-game conference schedule, while the Pac-12 still currently plays a nine-game conference schedule.

Eliminating divisions within the conference not only allows for more balanced scheduling within the conference but also would allow for the two best teams to meet in the conference championship game, instead of the best from each division.

So, how might these potential changes affect Penn State Football, as well as the sport in general?

Penn State Football might avoid OSU, MSU, and Michigan annually

Being that they are in the same division, Penn State Football has to play Ohio State, Michigan State, and Michigan on a yearly basis, and often times, it seems like at least two of those games are back-to-back on the schedule, providing quite the gauntlet to have to navigate.

In certain cases (2017), the Nittany Lions had to play all three in a row, including two of them being on the road.

Now, it is likely that the Big 10 will protect certain rivalries, meaning that certain matchups will still occur annually, such as Ohio State vs Michigan.

The question for Penn State Football is, which matchups would be protected?

The conference would likely want to protect Penn State vs Ohio State or Penn State vs Michigan, as those are usually two of the biggest games of the year. However, the Nittany Lions are neither of those schools’ biggest rivals, as they are each other’s.

Even if divisions are eliminated, the Nittany Lions would still likely have to face at least two of the three in most seasons, but that’s better than all three every season.