Gameday

Officially, the Big Ten makes the right call

There could be a first that might impact the Penn State football team and its fans Saturday, and that's hard to believe three games into the 140th season for the program.

After all, how many firsts remain?

This one relates to replay, and it came in the wake of the silliness that transpired during the Western Michigan-Michigan game. After the unsatisfying answers and public pushback, the Big Ten Conference announced a change to its replay review process.

Going forward, TV broadcasts from Big Ten stadiums using conference replay and on-field officials will be allowed to show live audio between the referee and replay official, who works from the conference office in Rosemont, Illinois.

So, instead of TV types offering opinions or speculating about what's happening, the broadcasts -- and thereby the fans -- will have access to the process. It's a good and overdue move that for some short-sighted reason had previously been limited to conference games played on Friday nights.

Sure, the transparency might lead only to confusion or more frustration, but at least it's something that takes a layer of speculation out of the process.

So, should a controversial play happen Saturday at Beaver Stadium, there might be a chance that its resolution could come a little more quickly and with a little more clarity.

At least we can hope.

Replay, rules

Along with that high-profile replay situation for Michigan in Week 1, college football fans have probably spent the first few weeks of the season adapting to a couple of rules changes.

Notably, there is no "halo" for players returning punts. As long as the return man has a chance to catch the ball, a defender can hit him almost immediately. Also, the targeting rule that was clear a couple seasons ago -- anything helmet to helmet led to a flag and likely ejection -- has become more subjective the past couple of seasons.

Both changes seem to contradict calls for increased player safety and do make those instances more confusing and uncertain.

Stadium stuff

OK, Penn State might have distributed 108,489 tickets for its season opener, but it seems unlikely there were that many in the building for that first game.

If that's the case, though, you can almost guarantee the USC game Oct. 19 will set an attendance record if both teams keep winning.

The current record is 111,030 for the Nov. 2, 2024, game vs. Ohio State.

Also, belated kudos to Penn State for a gameday presentation inside the stadium that seemed a little more intentional (especially to the benefit of a couple prominent sponsors), and that found a way to ditch the silly 4th Quarter flag at the start of the game's final period.

The addition of a pregame hype video narrated by Jack Ham was a nice touch, too.

Short Sark

While some have been critical of Texas coach Steve Sarkisian for his seemingly abrupt departures from in-game interviews during the Ohio State-Texas game last week, it seems like much ado about nothing.

For an interview just before halftime, with his team losing, he waited patiently at first but eventually departed before the interview. Reporter Laura Rutledge apologized for the network's inability to get to her, and the coach, sooner. No blame for Sarkisian there from me, and the apology seemed a bit much. He wanted to go with his team. State that and move on. No biggie.

After the game, Sarkisian left reporter Holly Rowe hanging, and it's easy to think the coach would want to talk about his team's victory. But it was also one of the biggest victories of his career, so maybe he wanted to celebrate with his team.

There's no doubt conference and school leaders probably let the coach know he was wrong (after all, networks pay for the privilege of getting such access). But the broadcast still got an interview with winning quarterback Arch Manning, and even that was just OK -- because little comes from such situations with well-trained interview subjects.

Notable

■ Kudos to all associated with producing the Penn State Football Story, which airs weekly on YouTube. Penn State has brought production of the web-based series in house, and the standard remains high. Sure, it's a different final product from its namesake of previous years that was distributed to TV stations across the state and nation, but we're in a different time for such productions and what fans are getting this season is something that's right for the time.

■ If you're curious, Virginia Tech has a similar YouTube series titled Set in Stone.

■ Another quality YouTube option: The Penn State Pregame Show. It airs starting two and a half hours before kickoff with host Brian Tripp alongside former Penn State standouts Christian Hackenberg and Deon Butler. There's a good chemistry among the trio and some perspectives you might not get in other places.

■ As former Notre Dame and LSU coach Brian Kelly works his first season as a broadcaster, his weekly sessions on satellite radio with Roy Philpott and Danny Kanell might be doing as much for Kelly's career as anything. They've helped him (as have others, no doubt) come across as more likeable than he ever seemed when he was pacing the sidelines. It's not clear if Kelly really wants to build a career as a broadcaster, or if he'll take the next appealing coaching job, but the image rehab should help no matter what.

Sampsell covers the broadcast end of Penn State football for Gameday. He can be reached at stevesampsell@gmail.com