ALTOONA, Pa. -- Penn State has extremely high hopes for the 2023 football season, in large part because the team will have a lot of good players at just about every position.
But there's another reason to like the Nittany Lions' chances: the schedule.
According to college football expert Phil Steele, Penn State will have one of the easiest schedules in the country this fall.
On Sunday, Steele released the strength of schedule rankings for all 133 Division I FBS teams for 2023. The rankings are based on how teams did during the 2022 season. (I added an interesting note in the comments section about how these rankings were compiled.)
Here is the complete 2023 Toughest Opponent Win/Loss % list for this years schedules. Where does your favorite team rank?
— Phil Steele (@philsteele042) February 19, 2023
Complete list here https://t.co/RlYZIqshLU pic.twitter.com/WJ7aILVKOv
Penn State's strength of schedule rank is way down -- at No. 90.! Again, that's out of 133 teams.
The Lions' opponents next season combined to go 76-75 last year, for a mere 50.3 winning percentage. They will face two teams that were ranked in 2022 (Ohio State and Michigan) and six that had a winning record): Ohio State, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland and Delaware.
Here's a look at Penn State's entire schedule, plus each team's record in 2022:
• vs. West Virginia (5-7)
• vs. Delaware (8-5)
• at Illinois (8-5)
• vs. Iowa (8-5)
• at Northwestern (1-11)
• vs. UMass (1-11)
• at Ohio State (11-2)
• vs. Indiana (4-8)
• at Maryland (8-5)
• vs. Michigan (13-1)
• vs. Rutgers (4-8)
• at Michigan State (5-7)
As you can see, the overall opponent record is weighted down heavily by two teams that finished 1-11 -- UMass and Northwestern. Besides those two, the opponents combined to go 74-53.
Then again, looking at it another way, if you take Ohio State and Michigan out of the equation, Penn State's remaining opponents combined to go 52-72.
Penn State figures to enter the 2023 season ranked in the top 10, and given the schedule above, should be able to get off to a strong start.
West Virginia provides a power-conference opponent for the opener, but being at Beaver Stadium should make Penn State a sizable favorite. There is a big road game at Illinois in week three -- which will be Drew Allar's first-career road start -- then Iowa visits the following week for what could be another tough contest.
But if the Lions can get through those games, they should be 6-0 heading into a road showdown at Ohio State in week seven.
