Penn State Opens as Small Favorite Over Purdue for Week 1 College Football Game

Updated: Sep 10, 5:00pm UTC

The Penn State Nittany Lions will look to turn the page on an underwhelming 7-6 finish as head coach James Franklin enters ninth season at the helm. They'll face an intriguing matchup in Week 1, a Big Ten cross-division battle with the Purdue Boilermakers. In one of the first primetime matchups of the college football season, this game kicks off on Thursday, Sept. 1 at 8 p.m. ET from West Lafayette, IN.

Penn State vs Purdue Week 1 College Football Odds

The Penn State-Purdue matchup has the potential to give Nittany Lions fans some pause, but the latest college football odds from FanDuel Sportsbook see their squad escaping with a hard-fought road victory.

The spread sits at just 3.5 points in favor of Penn State. The Nittany Lions hold -105 odds to cover the spread, while Purdue is at -115. The over/under point total line is set at 54.5 points.

Penn State vs Purdue History

While both schools represent the Big Ten conference, the two sides don't meet as often as you'd think considering they hail from opposing divisions. Penn State and Purdue have faced off 19 times in the program's histories, and the Nittany Lions are a strong 15-3-1 in those battles.

The last meeting between these Big Ten foes came in 2019, a 35-7 victory for Penn State. The Nittany Lions have also won nine straight matchups.

CFB National Championship Odds

Looking at this year's National Championship odds, it's surprising this point spread isn't a bit more lopsided in Penn State's favor, even on the road. The Nittany Lions are tied with the 12th-best odds (+10000) to win the National Championship. Meanwhile, the Boilermakers rank just T-36th at +25000 odds.

Adam Taylor McKillop is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Adam Taylor also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username atmckillop. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.