For the Nittany Lions, The Road Too Often Traveled To Start Conference Play Has Been On The Road — a Discrepancy Penn State’s New AD  Won’t Let Be Dismissed as a Coincidence Anymore

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This year’s Big Ten Media Days offered Penn State football’s top brass an opportunity to vent.

During James Franklin’s turn at the podium, the Nittany Lions’ head coach took a subtle shot at the frequency with which his team has been scheduled to open conference play on the road (seven straight years counting 2022, and 12 of the last 13). Later on, when a reporter questioned Dr. Pat Kraft about the topic, State’s new athletic director assumed a more direct approach. With a brand of candor uncommon to his profession or employer, Kraft made his view plain: “It stinks.” He went on to describe an appeal to the league office seeking relief.

But how big of a beef do James and his new boss really have?

Penn State fans absolutely love to complain about discriminatory treatment from the Big Ten. Any number of Blue and White backers will insist that what could simply be innocent quirks of a complicated scheduling process, in fact, characterize a pattern of mistreatment that predates the retirement of Bo Schembechler. To these impassioned partisans, their beloved program endures a special and exclusive aggrieved status.

Turns out, at least in this case, they’re right!

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Introduction

With the dead skin from our July 4^th sunburns fully peeled, and as we sit a few short weeks away from preseason camp beginning, now is the time where optimism runs wild. Watch out for (insert team). Call me crazy, but (insert team) is poised to make a run. And, of course, if things break right (insert team) is going to win the Natty.

Ah, that sweet symphony of hope.

Now, leave it to us – and our proprietary rating system – to either pump more sunshine into your veins or rain on your parade as we lay out a preseason Top 25 and Big Ten power rankings. This forward-looking view of the season will show which teams have the best chance to win it all and which may see dramatic falls. Now, attempting to rank teams going into the season based off previous performances is a fool’s errand, and if there’s a fool running around the college football analytics world it’s this guy (thumbs pointed inward). So enjoy!

Before diving in, a quick note: All of the “rating” numbers below represent an actual expected points scored or allowed (offense or defense) a team would generate against an average opponent (after adjusting for conference strength). The overall rating is the offensive expectation minus the defensive expectation.

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David Joyner had to deal with unprecedented NCAA sanctions.

Sandy Barbour guided the athletic department through a pandemic.

Patrick Kraft has a tougher job than either of them.

Penn State introduced its new athletic director on Friday, and it was pretty much what you’d expect to see at these sorts of things. Kraft, sitting next to incoming university president Neeli Bendapudi, hit on the big points – winning, and doing things the right way, and … well, you’ve heard it all before. Kraft perhaps delivered his opening salvo with more enthusiasm than any of his recent predecessors – a relatively low bar set in that regard by Barbour, Joyner and Tim Curley – but it was essentially the same old intro, a combination of praise for the new program and promise to build on its reputation, success with honor and so on.

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