The Nittany Lions have reportedly set up a series with Central Florida that could push UMass off the non-conference schedule.
UMass football's scheduled game with Penn State and Bill O'Brien could be in jeopardy
A Friday afternoon report from PennLive.com says that Penn State is adding the University of Central Florida to its 2013 and 2014 football schedules, putting in jeopardy a Sept. 20, 2014 contest scheduled with UMass in State College, Pa.
Penn State is looking to provide its fans an opportunity to see the Nittany Lions in a warm-weather climate while the school serves a four-year bowl ban in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal, according to PennLive, and a trip to Orlando would certainly fit that billing.
The original report of the Penn State-UCF series came from the Orlando Sentinel.
However, UMass Athletic Director John McCutcheon said he had not been contacted by anyone at Penn State, and that as far he was concerned, the game was still on.
"This the first I'm hearing of it," McCutcheon said Friday afternoon.
However, it's not guaranteed that the UCF game replaces the UMass game.
The Nittany Lions' original 2014 non-conference schedule had home games against Temple, Akron and UMass, along with a road game at Rutgers. However, Rutgers will at that point be a member of the Big Ten, meaning there's a possibility that that game could be played as a conference game (and moved to later in the season) or dropped altogether for the UCF game.
UMass has home games against Boston College and Vanderbilt, along with a trip to Colorado also currently scheduled for 2014.
There's still a lot we don't know — so for now, Minutemen fans should sit tight.