How Penn State’s White Out, the stadium spectacle, ended up on Peacock

There was no television moment last spring as the televised version of the Big Ten unfolded. With a flurry of emails between executives from CBS, NBC and Fox – plus a few follow-up phone calls to the conference to make sure contractual agreements were being met – each network consulted with its major board and planned how to best manage its broadcast packages. could position with his molars.

A network television design for college football is as sterile as it sounds.

“It’s just emails flying back and forth,” said Kerry Kenny, chief operating officer of the Big Ten Conference. “We benefit from all these partners working to make the Big Ten the best it can be, but at the end of the day they are all competitors. What’s good for Fox, what’s good for NBC, what’s good for CBS, isn’t always good for the other network partners at that point.”

The Big Ten is in the middle of a seven-year media rights deal with Fox, CBS and NBC that started in July 2023. Penn State’s place in this deal was interesting because fans had come to expect so much: like the start times being announced months in advance for the White Out and the hope of playing Ohio State or Michigan in prime time for that White Out game – it everything looks different now. Protecting Penn State’s annual White Out game and putting it into a primetime slot is more difficult than ever before.

This year, Penn State’s 16th full-stadium White Out will be played against Washington on Saturday at 8 p.m. The game follows an emotional disappointment following Penn State’s loss to No. 2 Ohio State. It feels strange that the annual spectacle with an envious atmosphere takes place so late in the season. It’s also strange that it can’t be found on traditional TV, streaming on Peacock instead.

How Penn State got here is the byproduct of trying to ensure the game is held at night, as Penn State fans wanted and athletics director Pat Kraft lobbied for, while making sure the network partners got what they wanted . No, Penn State wasn’t necessarily relegated to Peacock, but was instead placed in a window that satisfied the night game request.

When the television partners met in the spring to determine who will pick which games first, second and third this week, Penn State had already made it clear that it hoped to have a White Out game in prime time.

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With an 18-team conference spanning three time zones and more network partners than previous media rights agreements, fans must continue to adapt. Only once before, in 2015, has the White Out been held in November. The 8 p.m. start time was only announced last Saturday.

Even the gritty, White Out environment that has become the calling card of Penn State fans, a bucket list item for sports fans and a made-for-TV spectacle will be a little harder to find on Saturday with Peacock as a subscription-based streaming service. This is the second time Penn State football has appeared on the platform, joining last year’s game against Delaware.

Still, in some ways it can feel like a demotion, coming just a week after State College was the sport’s epicenter, hosting ESPN’s “College GameDay” and Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff.” But part of the reason the game ended up on Peacock is due to NBC’s long-standing relationship with Notre Dame. Part of that deal is that up to two games per year can be played in prime time on NBC. Florida State-Notre Dame was designated for NBC’s primetime slot well before the Big Ten draft, Kenny said. However, NBC’s slot wasn’t the only option. If Penn State had defeated Ohio State last week, this weekend’s game could have been at 3:30 PM on CBS or in prime time on Fox.

“We always knew that with NBC’s first selection that week, November 9, the Big Ten selection, whether it was the number one pick that week, the number two pick, or the number three pick among the three broadcast partners that would always are going to end up on Peacock,” Kenny said.

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Another new twist this season is that the White Out will also be available in 23 different IMAX theaters, primarily catering to audiences in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Washington – inconveniently, the closest IMAX to Happy Valley is more than 90 minutes away in York Still, it will be the first college football game presented live in select IMAX theaters, perhaps shedding light on what this next frontier of off-site sports viewing could look like.

NBC tried a similar approach with this year’s Olympic Opening Ceremony in IMAX and also found success showing the 2024 NBA Finals in non-mainland China and the League of Legends Championship in China and Korea. Depending on each theater’s food and beverage offerings this weekend, fans could drink beer, order dinner and experience the game in a different way – all without having to navigate postgame traffic at Beaver Stadium.

“It’s the whole communal experience first and foremost, and then we’ve specifically designed each of our theaters for the most immersive experience possible from both a visual and audio standpoint,” said Mark Welton, Global President of IMAX Theaters. “It really feels like you are at the game. The crowd, the noise. … People cheer. It’s like being in the stadium.”

Admittedly, the timing of the White Out, the fact that it’s on Peacock and the ability to watch it in IMAX all feel a little strange considering Penn State’s biggest home game of the season — and one of the most important in history of Beaver Stadium – was played last. week at noon as part of Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff.” Despite all the criticism from fans about an afternoon kick – and there was plenty of it – the Big Noon lighting machine did its job. Penn State-Ohio State drew 9.94 million viewers, up from the 7.3 million viewers who typically watch when the game airs in prime time.

Last 25 years of Ohio State-Penn State Games:

FOX Big Noon Games – 9.4 million viewers

All other OSU-PSU games – 7.3 million

I look forward to performing it again next year.

— Michael Mulvihill (@mulvihill79) November 6, 2024

Fans will still show up in droves for the White Out on Saturday, but this season Penn State has rolled out so many variations on a White Out theme — a “White Out Energy” game against Illinois, a helmet stripe game and a stripe-out — that the the run-up to Saturday feels different. Even head coach James Franklin, who normally wears white during his Monday media session the week of the White Out, did not do so this week. The entire tenor of the week after a loss to Ohio State does not have the usual hype that comes with the run-up to the annual stadium spectacle.

Part of the challenge going forward will be how willing the Big Ten is to help Penn State with the White Out, while recognizing that the TV partners hold the cards.

Kraft reached out to the Big Ten around draft time last spring to explain his position on what the White Out means for Penn State fans, the sport and the local community. It is often used as a recruiting weekend for Penn State sports other than football. Fans prefer the match to be held at night so that the visual spectacle of more than 100,000 fans dressed in white shirts and shaking white pompoms stands out against the night sky. Hotels are booked months in advance.

Penn State knew Fox was making the Ohio State game Big Noon. It also knew that its home game against Illinois in September would take place in the evening. It could have doubled as homecoming as the White Out, or a midday White Out for Ohio State. Instead, it chose Washington, knowing the earliest start time would be 3:30 p.m. Penn State wanted time to make fans aware of the game’s theme – which it did in July – and wanted enough time to conduct all the usual marketing activities. efforts behind it.

“Washington was unique because it’s a time of year where it gets dark pretty quickly after daylight saving time, with a 4:30 game,” Kenny said. “We looked at that date and Commissioner (Tony) Petitti and I talked to Pat about it at length.”

It’s never too early to look ahead to Penn State’s 2025 home schedule, which includes games at Beaver Stadium against Oregon and Nebraska. While a primetime White Out against Oregon seemed like a bull’s-eye a few TV contracts ago, that is now far from a given.

“We want to make sure that even in this new, changing environment of college football, we continue to find a way for the White Out to be a tradition that has the potential to survive and truly thrive into the future,” Kenny said.

(Photo: Dan Rainville/USA Today)