Will Penn State ever play Pitt again? James Franklin didn't rule it out, but some things would need to change in college football first

LAS VEGAS — Penn State and Pitt have played each other 100 times, but the two sides haven’t met since the last scheduling series ended in 2019. Panthers coach Pat Narduzzi has been vocal many times, including as recently as May, that the two should be playing every fall. However, there has been no public interest from the Lions’ side in resuming the matchup. Could that change in the future? James Franklin did not rule it out during a discussion with reporters here at Big Ten Media Days when asked about the possibility of Narduzzi one day getting his wish.

“I love out-of-conference scheduling discussions,” Franklin said. “I’d be all about a discussion about Pitt. We have played Pitt non-conference, we played West Virginia non-conference. We played Auburn non-conference, and had success in all that. The good thing is, we all have the ability to build our programs the way we see best. Coach has the ability to build his program how he thinks best. And we have the ability to do that at Penn State as well.”

Franklin, who enters his 12th season in State College this fall, proceeded to give a long answer from there that essentially boils down to this: At the very least, until every league plays the same number of conference games, Penn State will set its non-conference schedule in a way that it believes ensures the best possible path to making the College Football Playoff.

“The thing that I struggle with is the same thing I’ve been talking about for a long time, and this doesn’t change,” Franklin said. “Everybody has to play the same number of conference games. Like, this ain’t that hard, right? Everybody should be playing eight, or everybody should be playing nine.

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“I was in that other conference [the SEC] when the whole discussion about going to nine games was voted on. Everybody should be either playing a conference championship game or everybody shouldn’t play a conference championship. Everybody should be in a conference. I said that last year in a press conference before playing Notre Dame, everybody thought I was slighting Notre Dame. I’ve been saying that for 10 years. If I didn’t say it in that moment when I was asked the question, I’d be a hypocrite.”

He went on to reiterate a stance that he’s been sharing for years but has been especially vocal about recently. More similarities across conferences, especially in terms of the number of league games each plays, are needed to put the College Football Playoff committee in the best position possible to decide the field.

Watch Franklin’s full response in the clip below:

“I’m going to say it now, because I’ve been saying it the whole time, and that’s not a knock, but you’re asking a group of people to get into a group and decide the best 12 or 16 teams in college football, and you’re not comparing apples to apples,” Franklin said. “The other thing is, when you try to compare a non-conference schedule from a conference that plays eight compared to a conference that plays nine, it’s going to look different. We already have another power conference team on our schedule. They’re required to play another power conference. They have to, because they only play eight [conference] games. We traditionally have never played FCS teams. Other conferences are playing FCS teams.

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“You’re not comparing the same things. It’s not going to look the same. We’re already playing nine conference games. Where does it make sense? If you look when the Big Ten first went to nine games, you could make the argument maybe the worst decision Big Ten has ever made. Just mathematically, we were going to have more losses. We’re going to beat each other up. Over the last two years, we’ve been more strategic about it. It’s worked out pretty well.”

Penn State hopes its 2025 schedule, which features non-conference dates with Nevada, FIU, and Villanova before entering Big Ten play, is one it can navigate to a conference title and beyond. As for what future out-of-conference dates could look like? Many of them are set. And any changes or additions, like reigniting a meeting with the Panthers, for example, will come only in response to uniformity across the sport.

More: Watch Penn State head coach James Franklin’s Big Ten Media Day Roundtable

“There’s an easy solution: Everybody play the same number of [conference] games,” Franklin said. “Everybody play a conference championship. And then everything else will take care of itself. We were sold in the Big Ten all those years where we went to nine games, that strength of schedule was going to determine the teams that got into the four-team playoffs. That never played out to be the case. It never played out to be the case. Scheduling non-conference late games in the year, which sometimes could almost be like a bye week, late in the season, all these things are strategies that you have to decide what puts your institution, your program, in the best position to be successful.

“The good thing is, the way it’s set up right now, we all have the choice to do that, and all the criticisms that come in either direction, they’re great for conversations and they’re great for people getting angry and upset. But I’m not angry. I’m excited. I’m happy about our schedule [and] the opportunities that we have”