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Games That Will Decide Penn State’s Season
| Sept 26 vs Wisconsin | Campbell’s first Big Ten game, at home, in a spot Penn State should win. How this team looks in its conference opener sets the tone for everything after it. |
| Oct 10 vs USC | The likeliest White Out of the year, against a ranked Trojans team. Beaver Stadium at night is the biggest home-field advantage in the sport, and this is the night to use it. |
| Oct 17 at Michigan | Penn State is Michigan’s Homecoming opponent, in Kyle Whittingham’s first year in Ann Arbor. Back-to-back weeks against ranked opponents is the hinge of the whole schedule. |
| Nov 7 at Washington | A cross-country November trip against a top-20 Huskies team — the kind of game that quietly ends playoff hopes for teams that overlook it. |
How the Schedule Sets Up
The runway is generous: Marshall at home, a short trip to Temple, and Buffalo before Wisconsin opens Big Ten play on Sept 26. October is the crucible — Northwestern on the road, then USC at home and Michigan in Ann Arbor on back-to-back Saturdays before a bye. November is winnable on paper (Purdue, Minnesota, Rutgers) with the Washington trip as the outlier, and it closes at Maryland rather than against a marquee rival. Whether this adds up to a playoff bid depends on how the committee weighs a schedule without Ohio State, Oregon, or Indiana on it; here’s how the College Football Playoff works under the 12-team format. The nine-game league slate is part of the NCAA FBS shift toward deeper conference schedules in the 18-team Big Ten.
The Bottom Line
Seven home games, a likely White Out against USC on Oct 10, and a brutal back-to-back with Michigan the following week — Matt Campbell’s first Penn State schedule gives him time to build and then tests him all at once. Bookmark this page; times, networks, and results are updated throughout the season.