Penn State Football: 8 Ways Realignment Could Affect the Nittany Lions

The Big Ten added the Nebraska Cornhuskers from the Big 12 in the offseason. This move forced the Big Ten to split into two separate divisions, the Legends and the Leaders.

The new alignment will affect each team in the Big Ten in unique ways, including Penn State.

Entering 2011, the Nittany Lions are expected to finish in the upper half of the the Leaders division.

Despite question marks on both sides of the ball and a brutal final stretch in their schedule, the Nittany Lions have the potential to make some noise this season. A quarterback will need to emerge as a threat, and the defense will need to improve if this is to happen.

The game is still the same this season, but division play will make things different in the traditional Big Ten.

Here are eight ways the realignment will affect Penn State this season.

A New Opponent

The Penn State Nittany Lions have not faced the Nebraska Cornhuskers since 2003. Nebraska won that game in Lincoln, 18-10.

This season, the Nittany Lions will face off against the Cornhuskers Nov. 12.

The addition of the Cornhuskerrs to the rugged Big Ten schedule for Penn State is a tough one. The Cornhuskers have a very good team this year and should boast one of the nation's top defenses.

Penn State will play Ohio State and Wisconsin in the weeks following the Cornhuskers battle. These last three games make the Nittany Lions' schedule very challenging to end the season.

Adding Nebraska to the mix means another tough opponent every season for Joe Paterno's squad to face. It will be interesting to see how it affects their record.

More Competition

Splitting the Big Ten into two separate divisions should breed competition within the conference.

The split will give the regular season more meaning as they battle to be the top team in their division and, therefore, represent their side in the Big Ten Championship game.

Penn State will need to battle it out with perennial Big Ten contenders Ohio State and Wisconsin, while scrappy teams like Purdue and Illinois nip at their heels.

By splitting the conference into divisions, it gives teams a prize within the bigger prize: Win the regular season, get to the conference championship game, then look ahead to the BCS picture.

Penn State will need to pay more attention to what their fellow Leaders division teams are doing if they want to stay at the top.

No More Michigan Rivalry

Once the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry was kept intact, the likelihood of Penn State-Michigan continuing died.

Michigan may not be the Nittany Lions' biggest rival, but it has become a solid rivalry over the past few seasons. Instant classics ending in Lloyd Carr asking for more time on the clock will forever haunt Nittany Lions' dreams.

Teams need rivals, and losing one of their biggest will change the mindset for Penn State for one week of the season. It is a different feel to line up against a rival, and now the Nittany Lions will have that feeling one less time.

Perhaps another rivalry can be inspired by the new alignment.

The Big Ten Championship

Penn State fans have become accustomed to watching the Nittany Lions face off against the Michigan State Spartans at the end of the season. After that game, bowl hopes are decided, and that is that.

But this season—and in the future—Penn State and other Big Ten teams will have to play one more game. It will also be their biggest game of their season thus far.

The Big Ten Championship will pit the winner of the Leaders division against the Legends division. The winner will decide who was the best Big Ten team over the course of the season.

Penn State will have to face the Wisconsin Badgers their last game of the year this season. Whether they have what it takes to play in the Big Ten Championship after that is yet to be seen.

Michigan State's Relocation

Penn State's biggest rivalry will have a different feel to it from this season forward. The Michigan State Spartans have moved to the Legends division, while Penn State is in the Leaders division.

The Spartans have become Penn State's biggest rival and is usually the final game on the regular-season slate. This season the Spartans do not face the Nittany Lions at all.

How this situation will change as the years go on is uncertain. Fans will certainly want the rivalry kept intact.

The Spartans have become more competitive as the years have gone on. With Penn State's usually-competitive team, it has become a great rivalry to cap off the season.

Conference Prestige

The addition of the Nebraska Cornhuskers surely makes people around the country view the Big Ten differently.

Nebraska is a tough team that normally puts high levels of talent onto the field. This infusion of talent and excitement will help to put the Big Ten higher on the BCS pecking order. It will also allow Penn State's schedule and overall outlook look stronger.

Playing in a strong conference helps teams. It gets them exposure, recruits and allows anticipation to build as the BCS grows nearer.

Penn State already has the exposure, now they can let the anticipation over a new-look Big Ten get them excited.

Exposure to the Spread Offense

The Nebraska Cornhuskers will add another potent spread offensive attack to the Big Ten.

Illinois, Michigan and Indiana will also run the spread this season, with Ohio State running many of their plays from the shotgun.

The game of college football has trended toward the spread attack in recent years. The most potent offenses operate out of the shotgun and either use a balanced attack or lean heavily on either the run or the pass.

The addition of Nebraska will give Penn State—and every other Big Ten team—more exposure to more wrinkles associated with the spread offense. This exposure will prepare them for matchups in bowl games and make them much more competitive when they play non-conference games against the more athletic conferences.

Shorter Trip to the Top of the Standings

With the inception of the Leaders and Legends divisions in the Big Ten, competition became thicker, but the sample size became smaller.

Instead of battling with an entire conference for the right to play in a BCS bowl, teams will now have to worry about five others during the regular season.

The Penn State Nittany Lions will still have a tough conference slate, but the departure of teams like Iowa and Michigan State from their side of the conference will certainly ease the players’ minds.

As the season wears on and the Nittany Lions are looking to climb to the top of the conference ladder, they will only need to look five spots above them, at most. That alone will play a major role in keeping things positive in Happy Valley.