Penn State's 2025 schedule was released on Wednesday, giving us a first look at what next season could potentially hold for the Nittany Lions. Below, Happy Valley Insider offers four thoughts on the 2025 schedule for Penn State.
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1. Favorable bye weeks
After an easy first three games of the season against Nevada, FIU, and Villanova, Penn State will get their first bye week in week four next season. That bye week comes just one week ahead of Penn State's first big game of the 2024 season against the Oregon Ducks at Beaver Stadium on September 27.
Then after playing four games in four weeks, the Nittany Lions get another bye week at the end of October next year. Their next opponent? The Ohio State Buckeyes in Columbus. James Franklin and the Nittany Lions have to be ecstatic about getting their two bye weeks before their two biggest games of the season, two matchups that very well could determine the course of their season.
2. A tricky three-game stretch
The first six games of Penn State's 2025 season are favorable, most pundits at this point would pick the Nittany Lions to likely go 5-1 and potentially 6-0 depending on how both the Nittany Lions and Ducks look coming out of this winter into spring ball. However, starting with an October 18 trip to Iowa City, the Nittany Lions have a tricky three-game stretch.
After making that trip to Iowa, Penn State will get a bye week on October 25 which we discussed above. Then they'll travel to Columbus, where they haven't been able to knock off the Buckeyes since 2011. The third game, of the three-game stretch, comes against the Indiana Hoosiers at Beaver Stadium. While it's hard to project just how strong the Hoosiers will be in 2025, they're a program you have to take seriously as we advance under head coach Curt Cignetti until proven otherwise.
If Penn State wants to make the College Football Playoffs in 2025, it will likely have to get through this stretch with at least a 2-1 record. That's assuming the Nittany Lions don't drop any unexpected games along the way. But that's a lot of projection for a season that still is nine months away from getting away, let's not get too ahead of ourselves.
3. Another home heavy start to the season
The Nittany Lions will be at home for most of the first seven weeks of the 2025 season. Next year, the Nittany Lions will have five of their first six games at Beaver Stadium. That means starting on October 4, the Nittany Lions will be on the road for five of their last eight games including three of five games in November. The good news for the Nittany Lions is that since 2022, they're 13-2 on the road.
While they'll have tough matchups against Iowa and Ohio State on the road, they'll also travel to UCLA for a matchup on October 4 and also have trips scheduled to Michigan State and Rutgers.
4. An early White Out pick
The obvious choice here for a White Out game would be that September 27 matchup against Oregon, right?
In the words of Lee Corse, "Not so fast my friend."
Let's be honest, this game is going to get the Big Noon Kickoff treatment and Penn State doesn't want the White Out to be wasted on a noon kick. While there would still be juice, it still doesn't match that of a night kick. So, let's cross Oregon off the list. Though Oregon makes sense for a helmet stripe game.
We know it won't be any of the non-conference games so we can cross those off as well. That leaves Northwestern, Indiana, and Nebraska. It won't be Northwestern but both Indiana and Nebraska could be intriguing picks. If we had to pick one, we'd go with Indiana. The Nittany Lions hosted Washington this season in a Whiteout game in November and this game is scheduled similarly for November 8.
Even though Indiana will be coming off a College Football Playoffs appearance, I can't see this game being a high draft pick in the network draft for next season. That gives this game a strong possibility of being the White Out, and unlike this season, hopefully, it will be on NBC and not Peacock. Even the Big Ten Network, would be better.
The Indiana game may not be won that is popular with fans either but there simply are not many strong choices here and if the Hoosiers can carry over the success to next season, this game could very well be two programs competing for a playoff spot.
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