The college football season storylines are typically centered around conference play and how each team fairs in their respective division. Seeing two Power Five schools play an out of conference, regular season game midway through the season is a rarity.
However, week three gives fans one of the better early year matchups, as the No. 22 Auburn Tigers travel to University Park to take on the tenth-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions.
As the two biggest conference brands in collegiate football, the Big Ten and SEC often see each other in postseason bowl games. Over the last two seasons, the two leagues have played a combined six bowl games, with the SEC winning four of these competitions.
Most recently, Auburn fell to Minnesota in the Outback Bowl on New Year’s Day in 2020, posting a final score of 31-24. Penn State’s most recent SEC bowl opponent was a year prior on the opening day of 2019, when they fell to the Kentucky Wildcats, 27-24, in the Citrus Bowl.
Although both teams are 2-0 coming into their game tonight, they got there in very different ways. The Tigers has won their two games by a combined score of 122-10, steamrolling both Akron and Alcorn State.
This will be both Auburn’s first away game of the year and their first major conference opponent. Saturday’s 7:30 P.M. kickoff will mark the first time in 90 years traveling to a Big Ten stadium for a game, per Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde.
Penn State already has a ranked win on the road this year, when they took down (12) Wisconsin in Camp Randall Stadium, scoring with just nine minutes remaining to win, 16-10. They then returned home to walk all over Ball State, 44-13.
Both teams have question marks at their quarterback position. Auburn’s Bo Nix and Penn State’s Sean Clifford leave some to be desired, with Nix having only tossed 383 passing yards and Clifford having completed just 62.9% of his attempts.
This game will likely come down to the teams’ defenses, with Auburn being ranked third nationally in total defense and Penn State in the top 15 in yards allowed per play, per CFBStats.com.
The sport only see these two conferences square off about once a year, which is criminally unfair to fans. Having more games like this throughout the year only helps a team’s resume for bowl and college football playoff selections, and they draw large audiences.
The future may hold more midseason out-of-conference matchups thanks to the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 alliance. However, with the Big 12 and SEC left out of the equation, some of the biggest draws in the sport will be left in the dark. As a whole, the scheduling lineup needs all of the power conferences coming together to add in more of these contests.
Penn State is currently being given the slight edge over the Tigers, being favored to win by five points. On ESPN’s College Gameday, all three analysts sided with bookmakers and selected the Nittany Lions to leave with an important victory today. Either way, all 106,572 seats in Beaver Stadium will be rocking to catch this rarity of a showdown tonight.
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