Penn State’s Big Ten opener against Wisconsin now has a kickoff time that doesn’t fit neatly into any of the usual boxes.
The conference announced Monday afternoon that the Sept. 26 game at Beaver Stadium will start at 5 p.m. and air on Peacock.
That timing had been narrowing down for a while. The Big Ten had already said the game would not be played at night, and a 3:30 slot on CBS was off the table because that window is reserved for Iowa and Michigan.
That left noon and 3:30 as the likeliest landing spots. Instead, the conference went another direction, choosing Illinois and Ohio State for noon on Fox and pushing Penn State-Wisconsin to 5.
It’s not the first time a Penn State game has landed in an unusual window. One of the program’s most famous wins came against Nebraska in 1982, when that game kicked off at 3:50 on CBS. Penn State won on a last-second touchdown pass from Todd Blackledge to Kirk Bowman and finished that season with its first national title.
This year’s matchup could carry plenty of weight as well, even if the full shape of Penn State’s season is still unknown. It will be the first conference game of the Matt Campbell era and the first real test after a nonconference stretch against Marshall, Temple and Buffalo.
Wisconsin enters the week at 1-1 after opening with a 41-13 loss at Notre Dame and following it with a 36-9 win over Western Illinois. Before turning to Penn State, the Badgers host Eastern Michigan on Saturday, Sept. 19 at 7:30.
Penn State also has a game that same night, taking on Buffalo at 12:30 in Beaver Stadium on the Big Ten Network.
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