Penn State football announces future home-and-home series with ACC school
Penn State football has announced a future home-and-home series with an ACC school.
The Nittany Lions have added Syracuse to their schedule in 2027 and 2028. The Orange will come to Beaver Stadium on Sept. 4, 2027. Penn State will then travel to Syracuse Sept. 9, 2028.
Three non-conference matchups are now set on head coach James Franklin’s program’s schedule for 2027. After likely opening with Syracuse that season, it will also face Delaware on Sept. 11 and Temple on Sept. 18.
Penn State-Syracuse series history
Penn State and Syracuse have met 71 previous times. The Lions hold a 43-23-5 all-time series advantage entering the 72nd and 73rd matchups.
The two sides last met in 2013, when PSU snarred a 23-17 victory in Christian Hackenberg’s first game as a Lion, which was played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. Penn State has won the last five matchups and last lost to the Orange in 1988.
As for the most recent Beaver Stadium meeting, the Lions recorded a 28-7 triumph in 2009. And, when it was last at Syracuse, PSU left it with a dominating 55-13 victory over their hosts.
Future Nittany Lions schedules
Numerous non-conference matchups are set for the Nittany Lions over the next handful of years.
Penn State will host Ohio and Central Michigan this year while also traveling to Auburn.
In 2023, it welcomes West Virginia, Delaware, and Temple to Beaver Stadium.
Moving on to 2024, the Lions will go to Morgantown to face the Mountaineers while also hosting Bowling Green and Kent State. A year later sees Penn State facing Nevada and Villanova with one non-conference game still to schedule.
Finally, in 2026, Penn State goes to Temple and plays Marshall and San Jose State in front of its home crowd.
Additional matchups will need to be added in the future. But, those could take time. One reason is the possibility of an expanded scheduling agreement between PAC-12, ACC, and Big Ten schools. That hasn’t had as much steam recently, however, compared to previous months.
Then, there is the ever-changing world of college football. Could the Big Ten one day go back to eight conference games instead of nine? Will the Power-5 conferences break away from the NCAA and form their own league that would bring with it new rules and schedules, among many other things? The questions are endless.
All told, Penn State and schools like it have been scheduling future matchups to be played way down the road for a number of years now. But, as the tide keeps turning in college athletics, no one can say for sure what is waiting around the corner a year from now, let alone five or six.
Penn State opens its 2022 season on Thur., Sept. 1 at Purdue.
