The Big Ten is one of the toughest conferences in America to play in, and the Penn State Nittany Lions appear to be taking that to heart.
Not only is the quality of teams in the conference significant - with storied programs such as Ohio State, Michigan, Washington, Oregon, Wisconsin, Iowa, and USC - schools are required to play nine conference games instead of the typical eight, guaranteeing one more challenging matchup per year.
Because of this, Penn State's slate of three nonconference is pretty light. On3's Pete Nakos believes so, too.
In his list of toughest and easiest nonconference schedules for the 2025 season, Nakos listed Penn State in the latter category with Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, Georgia, Tennessee, Missouri, Ole Miss, Auburn, Maryland, Indiana, and Texas Tech. Here is what Nakos had to say about the Nittany Lions' schedule:
"The Nittany Lions are viewed as the potential No. 1 team entering the 2025 season, but they do not face a single Power Four opponent in nonconference. Penn State has built out a noncon schedule that features Nevada, FIU and Villanova."
As Nakos points out, the Nittany Lions will start their season with three home games, one against a Mountain West team, one from the Conference USA, and one local FCS opponent in Villanova. Penn State had spent the last four seasons with home-and-home matchups against Auburn and West Virginia, but they will take it easier this year.
This all comes - along with a bye in week four - ahead of their first major test of the season on September 27 at home against Oregon. The Nittany Lions should likely be as close to full strength as possible against the defending Big Ten champs with what they would hope to be three blowouts to start the year.