Why Penn State won't be protected as an annual rival for Ohio State football

INDIANAPOLIS — Ohio State has faced Penn State in each season since the longtime independent joined the Big Ten in 1993.
That is changing soon.
The league’s elimination of divisions next year, accompanying expansion to 16 teams with the addition of Southern California and UCLA as members, will wipe away the annual grudge match between the Buckeyes and Nittany Lions. Only Michigan is set as a protected rival for Ohio State.
Under a new scheduling format introduced last month for the division-less era, the Buckeyes are due to visit Penn State in 2024, but no meeting will be held the following season.
Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said he signed off on not protecting Penn State as a rival. A willingness to leave the conference’s schedule makers with more flexibility outweighed any desire to preserve another yearly rivalry.
“We have a historical relationship with Michigan,” Smith said. “It’s a competitive relationship with Penn State. It’s not like you go back to the Archie Griffin days and you talk about that rivalry. That’s the decision that I made.”
Smith expects the Buckeyes will face the Nittany Lions three out of every four seasons, making them at least a regular on the schedule, just no longer a fixture.
While Ohio State has won 10 out of 11 games in the series, including six in a row, the games have been tight ones.
The average margin of its six consecutive wins has been by 8 points. None have been decided by more than two touchdowns.
“Every year it's a battle,” Buckeyes coach Ryan Day said. “It just is. We built up some great games over the years.”
Day said the Nittany Lions, who have been ranked for each of their past six meetings and figure to enter this season near the top of the polls, have served as a midseason barometer.
“They’re a great team,” Day said, “and it’s one of those games where you find out where you’re at year in and year out. Do I like playing them? Not really. Because they're a very good team. But at the same time, I think the rivalry has been excellent. I think it's good for college football to see Penn State and Ohio State play.”
Neither Day nor Penn State coach James Franklin seemed overly sentimental about the series becoming less frequent in the coming years under the league’s “Flex Protect” schedule model.
“There are things we’re going to lose,” Franklin said. “We’re going to lose some games that people are used to seeing on a yearly basis.”
One upside is that schedules for the traditional powerhouses could remain balanced.
Ohio State would not be forced into facing Michigan and Penn State along with USC in the same regular season. The Buckeyes face USC in 2025 when the Nittany Lions are off the schedule.
Keeping schedules from being too top heavy is a way for the conference to maximize potential at-large berths for an expanded College Football Playoff.
Starting next year, it will feature an enlarged 12-team bracket that includes the six conference champions ranked the highest by the selection committee and six at-large teams.
The Big Ten's top playoff contenders would be left with fewer opportunities to beat each other up and have more pristine records by minimizing losses.
“Literally everything we talk about as the Big Ten needs to be based on how we get the most teams into the playoff,” Franklin said, “so you need to be thinking about six teams and all your strategy needs to be based on that — and then if you end up with five teams or whatever it is. But you need to be strategically making decisions to get as many teams in the playoff as possible.”
But there is some risk of taking away opportunities to pick up wins that could bolster a postseason résumé.
Day pointed out that last fall’s victory at Penn State, along with one over Notre Dame, helped the Buckeyes to reach the playoff despite a loss to Michigan that kept them from winning the Big Ten.
“You have to get some of those games under your belt,” Day said.
Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch. Contact him at jkaufman@dispatch.com or on Twitter @joeyrkaufman.