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

Week 1 @ West Virginia

Prediction: Afternoon, FOX

We wrote about this earlier this week, but this game appears to be almost a lock for FOX Big Noon Kick after ESPN announced their Week 1 slate of games. The only thing keeping this Non-Conf match out of Big Noon is a date change to Thursday or Friday evening.

Week 2 vs. Bowling Green

Prediction: 3:30 PM, BTN

One of the two layup non-conference games on Penn State’s schedule appears destined for Big Ten Network or Peacock. This could easily be an afternoon kick-off too, but we’ll say they’re punching the home opener crowd, and it starts at 3:30 p.m.

Week 4 vs. Kent State

Prediction: noon, peacock

After a rare bye week at the start of the season, the Nittany Lions are back in action on everyone’s favorite streaming service. Every team in the Big Ten must have been to Peacock at least once, this is similar to last year’s Peacock game which took place in Delaware in week two.

Week 5 vs. Illinois

Prediction: 4pm, FS1

This is the Lions homecoming game that will almost certainly involve those wonderful generations of greatness uniforms. This is a great week of CFB that is very under the radar, so this game is not likely to see FOX Big Noon. It will be bumped to FOX’s secondary station in the afternoon.

Week 6 vs. UCLA

Prediction: 7:30 p.m., NBC

Penn State’s first prime time game comes in week six, when newcomer UCLA hosts the conference.

A great uniform match under the lights, in what is likely 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: 3:30 PM, CBS

Penn State’s first trip west to the Coliseum serves as an appetizer for the main course of the day, Ohio State at Oregon. (This is the kind of slate the TV executives dreamed of when they added the West Coast teams to the Big Ten) Like Week 6, the Penn State game could be flipped with the other West Coast game, but I think Ohio State in Oregon draws the NBC prime time slot here.

Week 9 vs. Wisconsin

Prediction: 3:30 PM, CBS

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

This feels like one of the harder ones to predict given the unknown of what Wisconsin will be at this point in the season. Nebraska at Ohio State and Michigan State at Michigan are other notable games this Saturday. It is expected that these three will be spread across the network time slots that day.

Week 10 vs. Ohio State

Prediction: Afternoon, FOX

We know this is the one you skipped right 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 as a 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 standings at this point, it feels unfair to think FOX won’t take it.

Week 11 vs. Washington

Prediction: 7:30, NBC

It was a prevailing thought in my mind that one of the UCLA or Washington games would be the night kickoff, but now that I’ve gotten to this point in the exercise, I think the answer is that it’s both. This game feels like a good candidate for Beaver Stadium’s “Stripe Out” theme, as they host the national runner-up from a year ago, who will look nothing like the 2023 Huskies aside from the uniforms.

Week 12 at Purdue

Forecast: Afternoon, FS1

A sleepy 11 a.m. start time in Indiana for the Nittany Lions trip to West Lafayette. This one is being kicked to FS1 because there are just too many intriguing options to put this on FOX, CBS or NBC.

Week 13 Penn State Football at Minnesota

Prediction: Afternoon, FOX

A tough road race at the end of the season surprisingly gets the FOX Big Noon treatment.

This is one of the weaker Saturdays on the conference schedule for the Big Ten. Since this is an afternoon kickoff, it feels like a lock, but the chances of it turning into a FOX game increase with the number of wins Penn State has right now. On the other hand, 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 an afternoon game played against ‘The Game’, and with other monstrous Rivalry games happening in the conference today, it won’t bring CBS or NBC. A cold 4pm kickoff in Happy Valley on FS1 feels right for Senior Day.