Fans preparing to attend Penn State’s 2023 season opener may want to start thinking about a long day, and a late night. While nothing has been officially announced just yet, we may have been given an idea that Penn State’s season opener against West Virginia will be played under the lights in Beaver Stadium on Saturday, September 2.
An image shared by Penn State linebacker [autotag]Abdul Carter[/autotag] on his Instagram account showed a TV screen with a live countdown to the first game of the season, against the Mountaineers. In addition to the scheduled date, it also included a kickoff time of 7:30 p.m. ET.
Penn State has not faced West Virginia since joining the Big Ten. The 2023 meeting, the first in a home-and-home deal that continues in Morgantown, WV to open the 2024 season, is the first between the two old regional rivals since the 1992 season. The excitement for a fun regional rivalry’s revival is certainly worth getting pumped for, especially when it is the first game of the season. Throw in a primetime atmosphere, and we are now already entering legitimate whiteout conditions in Happy Valley.
This could also be a game primed for the first Saturday of Big Ten football coverage on NBC, one of the new broadcast partners for the Big Ten beginning this season. After years of partnering with ESPN, the Big Ten opens a new media rights deal with FOX, CBS, and NBC (and Big Ten Network) that kicks off this year. FOX will continue to use the Big Ten to highlight its Big Noon Kickoff programming and CBS will remain in its signature 3:30 p.,m. timeslot with the Big Ten after years of success with the SEC in that programming window.
NBC will showcase a Big Ten primetime game as part of the deal, With Notre Dame hosting Tennessee State in what will surely be an afternoon contest, which leaves the door wide open for this matchup to be the first primetime showcase for the Big Ten’s NBC lineup.
We’ll wait for an official update from Penn State, the Big Ten, and media partners, but it does look like we know when Penn State’s first game of the 2023 season will be played. Begin planning accordingly.
Looks like someone might've accidentally leaked the #PennState / #WestVirginia kickoff time.
September 2nd, 2023 at 7:30pm ET pic.twitter.com/RHl5Od1L1W
— Penn State Nittany Lions (@PennStateRivals) April 18, 2023
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