Big Ten Conference Schedules Through 2014 Released

PHOTO: Big Ten

The Big Ten released the conference schedules through 2014 today, and things are essentially as expected for Penn State.

Noticeably, it appears that Penn State has traded their year end matchup against Michigan State for a year end matchup against Wisconsin. That seems pretty even to me, given each school's history in the conference.

Also, beginning in 2013, each school will have two bye weeks throughout conference play. Penn State gets a bye before each Ohio State matchup over the subsequent two years. In 2014, the other bye week comes before Nebraska, so you can't really ask for better bye week placements in 2014.

The schedules for Penn State are as follows:

2012	Opponent	2013	Opponent	2014	Opponent
29-Sep	at Illinois	28-Sep	BYE	27-Sep	Minnesota
6-Oct	Northwestern	5-Oct	at Indiana	4-Oct	BYE
13-Oct	BYE	12-Oct	Michigan	11-Oct	at Nebraska
20-Oct	at Iowa	19-Oct	BYE	18-Oct	Indiana
27-Oct	Ohio St.	26-Oct	at Ohio St.	25-Oct	at Michigan
3-Nov	at Purdue	2-Nov	Illinois	1-Nov	at Purdue
10-Nov	at Nebraska	9-Nov	at Minnesota	8-Nov	BYE
17-Nov	Indiana	16-Nov	Purdue	15-Nov	Ohio St.
24-Nov	Wisconsin	23-Nov	Nebraska	22-Nov	at Illinois
		30-Nov	at Wisconsin	29-Nov	Wisconsin

In case you've already forgotten, Penn State's conference schedules must comply with the following rules: 1) play each of the other five Leaders Division teams (Illinois, Indiana, Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin) every year, on a rotating home-and-home basis; 2) play a protected cross-divisional matchup with Nebraska every year, on a rotating home-and-home basis; and 3) play two of the remaining Legends Division teams for two alternating home-and-home years, before rotating to another two teams.

In 2012, the Legends Division teams Penn State will face are Northwestern and at Iowa. Beginning in 2013, Penn State will see Michigan and Minnesota. With the hopeful resurgence of the Wolverines under Brady Hoke, the 2013 and 2014 schedules should be brutal, with Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio State, and Wisconsin each year.

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