Speculation swirled around what the fan turnout would look like inside Beaver Stadium leading up to Penn State’s first-ever College Football Playoff game and the Nittany Lion faithful certainly showed up decked out in white.
The announced attendance for Penn State-SMU was 106,013, just shy of a capacity crowd.
Today’s Penn State attendance. pic.twitter.com/g7qFYoB34L
— Joe Smeltzer (@joesmeltzer775) December 21, 2024
With the cold temperatures at game time and finals being done in State College, there was discussion of what the attendance would look like for a program and fan base that prides itself on filling Beaver Stadium.
According to Andrew Fillipponi of 93.7 The Fan, tickets were going as low as $8 on resale sites just a few hours prior to the game.
Nonetheless, the Penn State faithful flocked to Beaver Stadium and brought the energy as the Nittany Lions thrived defensively in the first half, running out to a 28-0 lead behind three interceptions . Two of those were returned for touchdowns by linebackers Dominic DeLuca and Tony Rojas. This was the first time Penn State returned two interceptions for touchdowns in the same game since Nov. 1998 at Michigan State.
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