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Sure — it provides immediate urgency
By Neil Rudel
nrudel@altoonamirror.com
I have no problem with opening the season against a Big Ten team.
In fact, I kind of like it -- even if it's on the road, where Penn State has started the conference schedule seven straight times and 12 of the last 13 seasons.
(This is one of James Franklin's new themes, dating back to the Big Ten media days last month. New athletic director Pat Kraft also doesn't like it and plans to address the matter with the conference.)
The advantage of playing a league game right from the outset is it brings an immediate urgency to fall camp and engages the fan base.
It forces a team to be ready and is a welcome departure from an early-season run-up of Nevada, Villanova and name a MAC team.
Last year and this, Auburn was on the non-conference, but if Franklin made the schedule (he doesn't), it would be San Diego State and not Auburn. (Last year, he said the game was made by the "administration," presumably meaning now-retired Sandy Barbour and Auburn's now-departed AD.)
He's also made his ambivalent feelings known about playing Pitt - lukewarm at best.
There are too many rent-a-win games in college football anyway when programs are willing to hand over and cash a multi-million paycheck for what amounts to a glorified scrimmage.
The bottom line is if the team is good enough, it doesn't matter.
Penn State went to Wisconsin last year and gained much confidence by winning at Camp Randall, 16-10, with a terrific defensive effort (never mind that the Badgers couldn't take a snap when they got inside the PSU 5).
The game was a springboard to a 5-0 start before injuries and not having a backup quarterback ready contributed to a meltdown at Iowa followed by a season collapse.
It had nothing to do with opening at Wisconsin.
Penn State has had some great performances in opening games under Franklin and before him.
His first game, won by a Sam Ficken kick over UCF in Ireland, was one. Winning in Camp Randall should be in his top five.
Going back further, Penn State's very first Big Ten game was the 1993 opener against Minnesota, which couldn't cover Bobby Engram, or the 1994 opener at Minnesota, which was only 56-3.
The Lions opened in almost 100-degree heat at Maryland in 1985 and used the game as a springboard to a pair of unbeaten regular seasons.
There were impressive season-opening showings in the Kickoff Classic, against Georgia Tech (1991) and USC (1996), and they crushed fourth-ranked Arizona to draw the curtain on 1999.
And there have been season-opening clunkers - the infamous Kickoff Classic in 1983 against Nebraska when the Lions were still celebrating being crowned No. 1 for the first time, a season-opening loss to Virginia in 1989 and starting the 2000s with a 29-5 loss to USC in East Rutherford, N.J.
Playing on in a national TV game (Fox) provides an excellent opportunity for exposure as Penn State-Purdue will have the stage almost to themselves (save Pitt-West Virginia fans.)
It forces a team to be ready from the beginning and is a welcome departure from an early-season run-up of Villanova, name a MAC team and a third non-conference game.
A challenging season-opening game, conference or otherwise, forces a coaching staff to make sure it hasn't worn out the team in camp and, usually, if the team is good enough, it won't matter.
No — Big Ten should learn from SEC
By Cory Giger
sports@altoonamirror.com
You know what the SEC doesn't do? It doesn't put its teams in peril by having them play each other in week one, placing the loser immediately behind the 8 ball.
You know what else the SEC doesn't do? It doesn't play a nine-game conference schedule. The SEC plays eight, thereby saving its teams from beating each other up even more.
The SEC gets it from a competitive standpoint. Before playing Auburn this year, Alabama will play Austin Peay.
Before playing Ohio State this year, Penn State will play Minnesota, a losable game that's also at night.
There are two ways to look at college football scheduling:
1. What do fans want?
2. What is actually best for the teams and the league?
Sure, absolutely, having Penn State play at Purdue in a Thursday season opener is cool. It's national exposure. Just like last year at Wisconsin, it provides a chance for a big opening win.
Fans love those kinds of games.
But those kinds of games also provide a chance for a tough opening loss, one that can shape the rest of the season.
It happened to Penn State at Indiana in 2020, on the ridiculous 2-point conversion call. That loss crushed the Lions, who opened the season 0-5.
Penn State could go 10-2 this year. Or 7-5. Anything and everything in between is on the table.
But if the Lions lose at Purdue, they're much more likely to drop into that 7-5 realm.
If they could open up against, say, Kent State and work out some bugs before playing a tough opponent, that would be better for the team than starting off with a potential conference loss on the road.
Getting back to the SEC, that league gets it because its goal is to keep as many of its primary teams in contention for a College Football Playoff berth for as long as possible. That's why not playing a conference game to start the season and not playing a nine-game league schedule are beneficial.
Make it as easy as possible for your league members to stay afloat on the CFP boat for as long as they can.
Not how the Big Ten does it, which is essentially making things as hard as possible.
Granted, this scheduling philosophy helped the Big Ten land a $1 billion TV package, in part because it can offer an awesome inventory of games, including appealing week one conference matchups.
But in going that route, the Big Ten has sold its soul for money. Now, that money will in fact help every member of the league to compete on a higher level, and that is certainly very good.
But in starting off the season with conference games, the Big Ten is unnecessarily putting its members in harm's way and making things tougher on the better teams that are more susceptible to upset losses early on.
Sure, fans may love seeing that kind of stuff. And yeah, it actually is very good for business.
But it's just not the smartest way to go about things from the perspective of helping keep teams relevant on the national stage.
Cory Giger covers Penn State for DK Pittsburgh Sports and hosts "Sports Central" weekdays from 4-5 on WRTA. He can be reached at cgsports12@gmail.com.