Penn State Football: Predicting Kickoff Times for Nittany Lions’ 2024 Schedule

Week 1 @ West Virginia

Prediction: Noon, FOX 

We wrote about this earlier this week, but this game looks to be nearly a lock for FOX Big Noon Kick after ESPN announced their slate of week 1 games. The only thing keeping this Non-Conf matchup off Big Noon would be a date change to Thursday or Friday Night.

Week 2 vs Bowling Green

Prediction: 3:30 pm, BTN 

One of the two layup non-conference games on Penn State’s schedule seems destined for either Big Ten Network or Peacock. This could easily be a Noon kickoff as well, but we’ll say they throw the home opener crowd a bone, and this one kicks off at 3:30.

Week 4 vs Kent State

Prediction: Noon, Peacock

After a rare early season bye week, the Nittany Lions are back in action on everybody’s favorite streaming service. Every team in the Big Ten must be on Peacock at least once, this feels similar to last year’s Peacock game which was Delaware in week two.

Week 5 vs Illinois 

Prediction: 4pm, FS1 

This is the Lions homecoming game which almost certainly will involve those beautiful generations of greatness uniforms. This is a very under the radar great week of CFB, so no chance this game sees FOX Big Noon. It gets bumped to FOX’s secondary station midday.

Week 6 vs UCLA

Prediction: 7:30pm, NBC 

Penn State’s first prime time game comes in week six when they host conference newcomer UCLA.

A terrific uniform matchup under the lights, in what is probably the annual ‘Helmet Stripe’ game for Beaver Stadium. Michigan travels to Washington this week, so likely one of these two games will be NBC prime time while the other is the CBS 3:30 game. I think Beaver Stadium gets the nod here.

Week 7 at USC

Prediction: 3:30pm, CBS

Penn State’s first trip out West to the Coliseum serves as the appetizer to the main course of the day, Ohio State at Oregon.(This is the type of slate the TV execs dreamed of when they added the west coast teams to the Big Ten) Just like in week 6, Penn State’s game could be flipped with the other west coast game, but I think Ohio State at Oregon draws the NBC prime time slot here.

Week 9 vs. Wisconsin

Prediction: 3:30pm, CBS

The Nittany Lions’ first trip back to Camp Randall since their dramatic 2021 season-opening victory lands them back on CBS for a consecutive week.

This feels like one of the tougher to predict considering the unknown of what Wisconsin will be by this point in the season. Nebraska at Ohio State and Michigan State at Michigan are other notable games this Saturday, it figures these three will be scattered among the network time slots that day.

Week 10 vs Ohio State

Prediction: Noon, FOX

We know this is the one you immediately skipped down the list to see what the guess is.

As much as the fan in me wants this to be a prime time ‘White Out’, I won’t set myself, or you the reader, up for disappointment again.

Oregon at Michigan could be a candidate for Big Noon this week, but if both teams are where we think they will be in the rankings by this point, it feels disingenuous to think FOX won’t grab it.

Week 11 vs Washington

Prediction: 7:30, NBC

It was a prevailing thought of mine that one of the UCLA or Washington games would be nighttime kickoffs, but as I got to this point in the exercise, I think the answer is it’s both. This game feels like a good candidate for the ‘Stripe Out’ theme of Beaver Stadium as they host the national runner-up from a year ago, which aside from the uniforms won’t resemble anything of the 2023 Huskies.

Week 12 at Purdue

Prediction: Noon, FS1

A sleepy 11am start time in Indiana for the Nittany Lions trip to West Lafayette. This one gets kicked to FS1 as there are just too many more intriguing options for this one to be on FOX, CBS or NBC.

Week 13 Penn State Football at Minnesota

Prediction: Noon, FOX

A tricky late-season road game surprisingly gets FOX Big Noon treatment.

This is one of the weaker Saturdays on the conference slate for the Big Ten. This being a Noon kick feels like a lock, but the chances of it being bumped up to a FOX game improve with the amount of wins Penn State has at this point. On the other side, a somewhat soft Minnesota schedule could leave this as a sneaky big game.

Week 14 vs Maryland

Prediction: 4pm, FS1

We know this won’t be a Noon game being put up against ‘The Game’ and with other monster Rivalry games in the conference this day, it wont garner CBS or NBC. A cold 4pm kickoff in Happy valley on FS1 feels right for Senior Day.