Is this real in that they put Penn State on the road again to open their B1G slate? Seriously? Is anyone competent in the B1G scheduling department? Serious question.
Not that I'm justifying always starting on the road for conference games, but FWIW...
Every conference team except PSU and Illinois had non-conference games scheduled for 9/16. PSU was expected to play Illinois and have it be away (we played them home last time in 2021). So, basically there's the following things that could have been done given those parameters:
1. PSU played Illinois away 9/16
2. PSU (and Illinois) had a bye 9/16. PSU could then open conference play at home 9/23
3. PSU could not have a conference game on 9/16 and gotten UMass to move that game to 9/16 (though UMass already has a game scheduled then vs Eastern Michigan, so probably not really an option)
4. Other Big Ten teams would need to move existing non-conference games off 9/16 to be able to schedule PSU with a different opponent (at home).
It's crap that PSU has constantly opened on the road, but I think the writing was on the wall for this particular situation. We were playing at Illinois that weekend under the old schedule too.