This week’s question: What’s your take on the new Big Ten schedule?

By Cory Giger

For the Mirror

Penn State, and James Franklin in particular, certainly love that both Ohio State and Michigan will no longer be on the schedule every year, beginning in 2024.

Without a doubt, not having to play the Buckeyes and Wolverines each season will help the Nittany Lions’ chances of making the 12-team College Football Playoff.

That’s a given.

But it still stinks, if you ask me.

Games against Ohio State and Michigan have always been a blast. Everybody looks forward to them, they are usually extremely competitive, and plenty of memories are made in those games.

This season is a perfect example.

This entire season for Penn State comes down to the Ohio State and Michigan games. Period. We’ve all known that for more than a year, and so we’ve been able to circle those dates on the calendar and build everything we know about the Lions around how they’ll fare against those two teams.

Those are great rivals. Penn State likes to arrogantly call itself “Unrivaled,” but to deny that Ohio State and Michigan are indeed rivals is total nonsense.

But, with the elimination of divisions in the Big Ten, Penn State will no longer have to deal with or worry about both the Buckeyes and Wolverines every year.

Ohio State will be on the schedule in 2024 and ’25, but not Michigan. The Wolverines will be on the schedule in 2026 and ’27, but not Ohio State.

Those two years will mark the first time since 1993 — when Penn State joined the Big Ten — that the Lions will not play the Buckeyes. You gotta go back to 1980 for the previous matchup.

Fortunately, I can’t foresee a scenario where Penn State and Ohio State go longer than a couple of years without playing. It very well could be a recurring situation of two on and two off for both the Buckeyes and Wolverines.

The good news is that we’ll get to see cool matchups against the likes of USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington. I absolutely love playing different opponents, because college football can become stale if you only play the same teams all the time.

I mean, who even cares about matchups against Indiana or Rutgers or Purdue or Northwestern? So yeah, replacing some of those games with USC and the other Big Ten newcomers will be terrific.

But it will come with a cost, and that cost is fewer games against Ohio State and Michigan. And while that makes Franklin happy because it should help him get to the playoff more often, Penn State fans ultimately will be let down by the evaporation of the only two rivals they really have anymore.

Cory Giger covers Penn State for DK Pittsburgh Sports and hosts “Sports Central” weekdays from 4 to 5 p.m. on 96.1 Hank FM.