LUTHMANN NOTE: Penn State received the kind of first-year runway most new coaches can only dream about. Ohio State, Oregon, and defending champion Indiana are gone. USC comes to Beaver Stadium. Washington stands alone as the serious travel burden. A schedule this forgiving is a gift wrapped with an invoice. Campbell must win immediately. Ten victories would establish competence. Eleven would announce Penn State as a contender. Anything less will raise fair questions about whether the program squandered its cleanest playoff path in years. The Nittany Lions caught the break. Now they have to cash it. This piece is “Campbell’s Honeymoon Slate,” also available on NY News Press.
At the onset of Penn State’s August Media Day, head coach Matt Campbell talked about how the Nittany Lions will approach the 2027 season and then quickly corrected himself in a Freudian slip of schedules. In his initial season as Penn State head coach, Campbell has been graced with the rare combination of manageable opponents and strategic timing that positions his Nittany Lions for a successful campaign.
That may not be the case next year, but this column will not put the cart before the horse. This season, Penn State hit the schedule lottery.
While no Big Ten schedule is considered a cakewalk, Penn State’s 2026 slate provides a path that is certainly more favorable than in previous years. The Nittany Lions open the season with a September tune-up trio against Marshall, Temple, and Buffalo, three teams that do not carry the same national pedigree as a power-conference program. The Lions’ opening trio is one of the weakest nonconference slates in the nation.
There is no SEC heavyweight, no neutral-site showcase, no early-season measuring stick. Instead, Penn State gets three games that should allow it to build confidence and momentum while avoiding an early loss that so often derails a promising season.
The Sporting News ranked Penn State as having the easiest Big Ten schedule in 2026, while Ohio State has the most challenging.
The early schedule gives Penn State a chance to build momentum and develop chemistry under new head coach Matt Campbell after a major NIL-era roster overhaul. It provides the opportunity to work through any growing pains without risking an early-season loss.
The absence of Big Ten powers Ohio State, Oregon and defending national champion Indiana cannot be overstated.
Penn State will play seven home games, including conference matchups against Wisconsin, USC, Purdue, Minnesota and Rutgers. The schedule avoids back-to-back road games, while the trips to Michigan and Washington are spaced far enough apart to avoid a travel grind, with the bye week conveniently arriving before the season’s final push.
Granted, schedules do not win games by themselves, but they can open doors, providing teams a chance to contend if they can take advantage. The absence of conference heavyweights, a merciful nonconference lineup, and a strong home-field advantage all combine to create a realistic and promising season.
In a conference where one loss can derail momentum and possibly a season, simply removing Ohio State from the equation changes the season’s complexion. Michigan is still there, but the matchup arrives in mid-October, before the season’s attrition sets in. USC comes to Beaver Stadium for the annual White Out game, which is a far different challenge than flying cross-country into Los Angeles. Washington is the lone cross-country road trip and is spaced out enough to avoid creating travel fatigue.
Nonconference games are often scheduled years in advance, but expansion forced the Big Ten to reshuffle its league rotation. Penn State ended up on the right side of that reshuffle. The 2026 rotation does not guarantee success, as nothing in this conference does, but what it does offer is a clear path to a solid shot at a playoff spot.
For a program that is often asked to climb uphill, 2026 should feel like level ground.
This schedule does not just allow Penn State to succeed.
It demands it.
