Penn State got the good side of the Big Ten schedule draw, and its schedule just continues to look better and better
Penn State was on the good side of the schedule draw in the Big Ten. Now that the conference has 18 teams and they have done nothing to even out the scheduling, some teams will get ridiculously hard schedules, while others will get the proverbial cake walk.
For Penn State in 2026-27, they are in the latter category.
It has been known that they got the good side of the draw, but on paper, it continues to just get better and better.
Phil Steele released his College Football Magazine, in which he estimated having over 1,000,000 words in it, covering nearly everything that he can for every single team in the country.
From rosters, depth charts, recruiting, past successes, schedules, outlooks, and everything in between, he truly writes one of the most comprehensive write-ups for the sport.
Part of his coverage is ranking each team's schedule within its conference. When looking at the Big Ten, Steele tiered out each team and then used the tiers to rank each of the schedules. The tiers are as follows:
- Tier 1: Ohio State, Oregon, Indiana
- Tier 2: USC, Michigan, Washington, Iowa, Penn State
- Tier 3: Nebraska, Northwestern, Minnesota, Illinois, Maryland, UCLA, Wisconsin
- Tier 4: Purdue, Rutgers, Michigan State
Teams like USC, Nebraska, and Northwestern got the true short end of the stick by getting all three of the Tier 1 opponents and two Tier 2s.
On the other side of the coin is where Penn State lands. They are at the bottom of the rankings, second from the bottom, with one of the easiest schedules in the conference.
They have three tier two opponents in USC, Michigan, and Washington, two of which are on the road. Then they get four of the Tier 3s and two Tier 4s.
Using last year's final records, Penn State's opponents have a combined Big Ten record of 33-48, which is a win percentage of just 40.7 percent.
This is an ideal setup for Matt Campbell and this new era of Penn State football. He and this new program have their opportunity to get their feet under them in the first couple of games and then get so many favorable conference games.
It certainly will not be easy, but in terms of just Big Ten play, it could have been miles worse of a draw for Penn State. They were given a gift that they need to take advantage of.
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