A Penn Football State 'Tradition:' the Big Ten Road Opener

'We love it,' James Franklin said of the Lions beginning conference play on the road for the 8th straight year.

Penn State coach James Franklin called it a "tradition," one that the football program will extend for an eighth consecutive year. The No. 7 Lions open Big Ten play at Illinois on Saturday, which also marks the 13th time in the past 14 seasons that they kick off a conference season in their road whites. So as the Big Ten reworks the 2024 schedule after adding Oregon and Washington, Franklin said he and Penn State Athletic Director Patrick Kraft will try a new lobbying plan.

"We go to Illinois, which is a tradition around here, opening on the road in the Big Ten. We love it," Franklin said at his weekly press conference. "... We’re trying kind of reverse psychology and [asking] to be on the road this coming year and see what happens."

That would be a different strategy than one Kraft employed last year regarding Penn State's scheduling quirk. This seasons marks the ninth of Franklin's 10 as Penn State's head coach that the team will begin Big Ten play on the road. Franklin has coached his team in just one conference opener, against Rutgers in 2015. "It stinks," Kraft said of the scheduling quirk in July 2022.

"That shouldn't happen at Penn State," Kraft told reporters at Big Ten media days in Indianapolis. "We should be at home for our opener. I think it's crazy. That stinks. I did deal with that. I called our friends in the conference, who I love dearly, but that's not right."

So when the Big Ten released its 2023 football schedule three months later, Kraft was not thrilled. He doubled down in reacting to Penn State's conference opener at Illinois. Yet this isn't new: Penn State has begun 22 of its 31 Big Ten seasons with road games. 

"It is incredibly frustrating and disappointing Penn State will be starting our Big Ten football slate next year on the road for the eighth straight season and for the 13th time in the last 14 years," Kraft said in the statement. "When I arrived on campus, I shared with the conference staff my concerns and repeatedly referenced their failure to address this issue in the past. I have been in communication with [former Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren] and I am confident this issue will be addressed moving forward."

Perhaps Penn State should reconsider, though. Franklin is 6-2 in Big Ten road openers, including wins over Wisconsin and Purdue the past two years. The losses were to Michigan (a 49-10 rout in 2016) and to Indiana in overtime to begin the conference-only 2020 schedule.

At least this time, Penn State is playing its conference opener following two home games to begin 2023. The Lions kicked off the past two years with testy conference games against Wisconsin and Purdue that it won by a combined 10 points. So if he has to travel to begin Big Ten play, Franklin would prefer to do so with a schedule like this one. The Lions played two non-conference games to start the season and will play their third, against Massachusetts on Oct. 14, as a break from the Big Ten grind.

"I can't speak for college football but if I had to guess, most people would like the model that we all grew up with," Franklin said. "That you play two out-of-conference games, three out-of-conference games if you're in a conference that plays eight, and then maybe save one conference game for later in the season and then be able to break up your Big Ten schedule a little bit. I think that's ideal, but I think what's happened, if you look at most of the conferences and what the TV people want, is they want to be able to spread out those types of games through all 12 weeks of the regular season. So there's some give and take there and understanding of that. But since we have led for so long, I'm assuming we won't have another one like that for another 10-15 years based on how it's gone."

Penn State (2-0) visits Illinois (1-1) for a noon ET kickoff Saturday on FOX.

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