Penn State welcomes Rutgers to Big Ten in 2014 football opener
The Big Ten announced that Penn State will be the opponent when Rutgers makes its conference debut in 2014.
Penn State will provide the opposition when Rutgers makes its Big Ten football debut in 2014.
On Thursday, the conference released its 2014 schedule which finds the Nittany Lions opening the Big Ten season on Sept. 13 in Piscataway, N.J. It will mark the first time Penn State has played at Rutgers since 1955.
The Lions also will travel to Michigan (Oct. 11), Indiana (Nov. 8) and Illinois (Nov. 22) for conference games. They will host Northwestern (Sept. 27), Ohio State (Oct. 25), Maryland (Nov. 1) and Michigan State (Nov. 29) at Beaver Stadium.
Penn State's game against Maryland will be the first game between the two teams since 1993, and first in State College since 1992. They competed every year but three between 1960 and 1993.
The season finale against Michigan State resumes the battle for the Land Grant Trophy, the prize of every game between the Nittany Lions and the Spartans from 1993 through 2010.
The Nittany Lions have three non-conference games, all at home, scheduled thus far for 2014 – Aug. 30 vs. Temple, Sept. 6 vs. Akron and Sept. 20 against Massachusetts. One non-conference game remains to be added.
Big Ten teams will play eight conference games from 2013 through 2015, then move to a nine-game Big Ten schedule in 2016.
--Joe Juliano