PSU Nittany Lions

NittanyNation reporter Josh Moyer stopped by SportsNation on Friday to chat about the state of Penn State football and answer your questions.

The Big Ten released its 2014 league schedule earlier Thursday, completing what its architect Mark Rudner called a "long, arduous process" of crafting a slate with two new teams, two new divisions and a second open week.

ESPN.com caught up with Rudner, the Big Ten's senior associate commissioner for television administration, to discuss how the 2014 schedule came together.

It's important to note the Big Ten compiled the 2014 slate based upon principles green-lighted by its athletic directors.

They are:

• Nonconference games that had been previously contracted were protected. For example, Northwestern visits Notre Dame on Nov. 15, 2014, so the Big Ten made sure not to schedule the Wildcats on that day. Also, Penn State and Rutgers had a previously scheduled non-league game for Sept. 13, 2014, which became a conference game with Rutgers joining the Big Ten. The date wasn't changed.
• No more than two consecutive road games
• Each team must play two home games and two road games in each half of the season

It's not as if athletic directors ask the league not to schedule multiple rivalry games on the road every year.

"Once you do that," Rudner said, "you're at risk of never having a schedule."

There has been some reaction to Michigan facing in-state rival Michigan State in road games in consecutive seasons (2013, 2014) and Purdue visiting Indiana for the Bucket game the same two years. The Wolverines never have played the Spartans in East Lansing in back-to-back years and haven't hosted MSU in consecutive years since 1967-68.

Although it'll be new for Michigan, such back-to-backs are fairly common when a scheduling model changes. Between 2010-11, there were 13 instances of back-to-back matchups, including rivalry games like Iowa-Minnesota (both games in Minneapolis) and Penn State-Ohio State (both games in Columbus) and other good matchups like Wisconsin-Michigan State (both games in East Lansing).

"It's unavoidable," Rudner said. "It happened five times in 2008-2009. So it's not foreign, it's not ideal, but it's unavoidable. When you're introducing new institutions and you dole out home and road games, it just happens."

Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany has said "parity-based scheduling," where teams will face one another more often in crossovers based on historical success,will begin in 2016, will begin once the league goes to a nine-game conference schedule. Rudner said the league asked the ADs if they wanted to start the nine-game schedules in 2014 but they couldn't because of so many signed contracts for non-conference games. If they had, the 2014 would have incorporated parity scheduling.

The 2014 slate ultimately features none of it, as the traditional powers in each division -- Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State in the East, and Nebraska, Wisconsin and Iowa in the West -- don't play at all.

"I don't think it's going to hurt us," Rudner said. "Brand is strong enough. There are enough games that are strong that'll drive television interest. Short of a full round-robin, which nobody in our conference wanted to do, you're going to have these sort of issues."

A few other schedule notes:

• Rudner and his staff didn't have a directive to schedule mostly division games in November, but it worked out that way as most teams will play exclusively in their division or play only one crossover in the season's decisive month. "Ideally, that's what we would like to do," Rudner said. "It makes a lot of sense to play division games late in the season, toward a championship."
• The Big Ten doesn't look at long-term trends of how often teams open league play on the road when crafting schedules. Athletic directors haven't asked it to a be a principle of building schedules. "It's never been important to them," Rudner said. "What they want to avoid is long road trips and making sure there's balance, home and away, in each half of the season. The rest of it, they can live with. Not everybody plays the same kind of schedule, but they do it based on those principles. They look at it and say, 'That's fair. Let's do it.'" Penn State, by the way, will open league play on the road for the fifth straight year and for the ninth time in the past 11 seasons.
• That new members Maryland and Rutgers host traditional powers Ohio State and Michigan on the same day (Oct. 4) was pure coincidence, Rudner said.

The 2015 Big Ten schedule, which should be released by the end of the month, will feature the same matchups at the opposite locations. The league has to maneuver around some previously scheduled non-league games before finalizing the slate.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Bill O'Brien raised his voice as if a freshman quarterback had just criticized his play-calling -- and that demeanor remained unchanged for about 30 minutes.

Penn State's second-year coach fielded questions about a Sports Illustrated article that criticized the medical care of his players, and he was absolutely livid. Reporters would often see an angry O'Brien after difficult losses, but O'Brien never seemed angrier than Wednesday afternoon when he defended the program against the latest series of accusations.

"Look, for the past 16 months that I've been here -- along with my staff and everybody that works in this building, along with the players at Penn State -- we're trying to do our best," he said, his voice gradually rising. "We're trying to do our best in the classroom We're trying to do our best on the gamefield. That's what we're trying to do.

"We're recruiting what we believe are fantastic guys in the program. We have a hell of a coaching staff. We got people in our building that are the best I've ever been around. And we're just trying to do the best for Penn State. And, at the end of the day, I wish people would see that and understand that."

Penn State released a list of how other schools' medical staffs operate, and PSU's practices seemed on par with other Big Ten programs such as Northwestern and Nebraska. The Nittany Lions used to have an orthopedic surgeon and team physician at every practice, before a recent change in the staff.

O'Brien alluded to that list. Now, a team physician attends every practice while the surgeon is available at least once a week. But, at LSU and Iowa, those physicians aren't made available at every practice.

So, Penn State's coach implied there was no reason for a narrative that criticizes PSU's medical care.

"I want people to understand that the No. 1 priority to myself and to our staff at Penn State are our players," he said. "We have a deep connection with our players. We are battling an uphill battle. We are at 65 scholarships, 67 scholarships.

"You think for one second I would jeopardize the health and safety of the football team? With 65 scholarships? That's preposterous."

O'Brien deflected talk of being undermined, but he clearly wasn't pleased with a statement by Alumni Trustee Anthony Lubrano, who spoke with the Harrisburg-Patriot News. Lubrano questioned whether, in evolving more into an NFL-type atmosphere, that there could be "more of a rush to get the student back on the field."

ESPN's coach of the year fielded a response to that statement before taking one more question and ending the teleconference.

"I don't know where anyone can just say a quote about something they know nothing about," he said. "I don't understand, I don't comprehend it. I don't understand how someone can make a quote that they know nothing about, and then the quote is not true. The quote is not true."

Jabrill Peppers (Paramus, N.J./Paramus Catholic), the No. 2 prospect in the country, has set his decision date.

The No. 1 defensive back will make his decision live on ESPNU on May 26. With almost every program in the country targeting the talented prospect, Peppers has narrowed his list down to LSU, Notre Dame, Michigan, Penn State, Rutgers and Stanford.

He still plans on taking his visit to Penn State on May 18, and has already been out to Michigan, LSU and Ohio State. There might still be a surprise visit in store before the announcement as well. The five-star prospect has turned heads with his play on the field and will undoubtedly be a game changer for whichever school he picks.

CHICAGO -- Penn State athletic director Dave Joyner jokes with his Pitt counterpart Steve Pederson about scheduling football games somewhere on the Pennsylvania Turnpike between State College and Pittsburgh.

It's unlikely the Nittany Lions and Panthers will lock horns on the side of the road, but they could be seeing each other annually for many years to come. Pederson told colleague Brett McMurphy at the ACC spring meetings Tuesday that he'd like to schedule more games against Penn State beyond the schools' agreement to play from 2016-19. Joyner has strong interest, too.

"We'd be interested in talking about that," Joyner told ESPN.com at the Big Ten spring meetings. "It's a great series. It's been a great linchpin in Pennsylvania for everyone there. Steve and I will definitely talk about doing that."

The longtime rivals announced in 2011 they would resume their series, which had been dormant since 2000, and tacked on two more games in December. Penn State and Pitt met every season from 1935-1992. They took a break when Penn State joined the Big Ten, but then resumed with a four-game series from 1997-2000. The Lions own a 50-42-4 advantage in the all-time series.

Pederson said he "would sign a 30-year deal" if he could, adding that the Pitt-Penn State game "ought to be played." Penn State coach Bill O'Brien also has voiced his support for the series.

"Pitt-Penn State, who can forget those games back in the day, usually late in the season, snowing?" O'Brien said on Penn State's recent coaches' caravan. "I think it's great for college football."

Penn State might not be able to play Pitt annually after the Big Ten goes to a nine-game conference schedule in 2016, but there is certainly more support for the series than there was during the latter part of Joe Paterno's tenure.

Joyner also said Penn State is "actively working" on a 2014 game in Ireland, reportedly against UCF, and hopes to have a resolution in the next few weeks. More neutral-site games are a possibility for Penn State, which kicks off the 2013 season against Syracuse at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

"Neutral sites are a very, very interesting proposition," Joyner said. "It's good for everybody. From a monetary standpoint, it's a very satisfactory thing to do, but it also engages people in other parts of the country to perhaps come to games. So it's a good thing to consider doing."