Gameday

PSU fans happy as a Peacock? Not this week

TV/Radio commentary

It's homecoming week at Penn State, and the conference opener against Wisconsin kicks off late Saturday afternoon -- a combination that probably prompts interest among many in the program's wide-ranging fan base.

It may turn out to be the least-watched Penn State game of the season, though.

With Wisconsin-Penn State streaming on Peacock, it's available to fewer potential viewers. Well, that's not true, it's available to as many as any other week but if they're not already streaming customers, they'll have to subscribe to Peacock to get the game.

Penn State's once-a-season games on Peacock usually come with special subscription offers. So, if you're not already a subscriber, some last-minute deals may exist. According to Peacock's website earlier this week, the cheapest monthly plan that includes live sports costs $12.99.

Of course, that's much less than a ticket to the game and traveling to Beaver Stadium with gas prices these days. So, in terms of investment, you could make a case that subscribing to Peacock for a game is financially sound. Just make sure to cancel ASAP if you do subscribe for just this week's game.

At the same time, if you're already paying for your TV entertainment, you may feel you've already paid enough.

Maybe you'll listen to Steve Jones, Jack Ham and Brian Tripp instead. Maybe you'll watch them in the broadcast booth on YouTube.

Options exist. Altogether, though, it will not be the most prominent, widely watched game of the season.

About attendance

Last week's announced attendance at Beaver Stadium for the game against Buffalo (103,817) was the lowest home game turnout since 2019, when 98,895 reportedly showed up for a Nov. 30 game against Rutgers.

In 2025, 103,818 fans were reported for a game against FIU.

So, not surprisingly, two nondescript nonconference games (Buffalo, FIU) drew the smallest crowds in the past half dozen years.

The gameday per capita revenue hit is probably not enough for Penn State to seek high-profile nonconference opponents in future seasons, but for a program seeking every possible dollar from its fan base maybe it's at least a topic worth discussion.

Or course, better opponents would come with perhaps more costly guaranteed costs or with requests for return games -- things that probably skew any decision back toward the traditional cupcake opponents.

Along with that Rutgers game in 2019, a Maryland game the year before (also in November) drew an even smaller crowd: 98,442.

Conference or nonconference, the quality of the opponent matters -- and bad weather games in hunting season do not help either.

Broadcast booth

No Penn State game has drawn the No. 1 TV broadcast team from any outlet so far this season.

That will finally happen in the sixth week of the season when Noah Eagle, Todd Blackledge and Kathryn Tappen handle the call for NBC's coverage of USC's first visit to Happy Valley.

Six weeks is the longest Penn State has gone without drawing a top broadcast team in a decade.

In 2016, it took seven weeks before ABC's No. 1 crew -- Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Samantha Ponder -- worked the Ohio State game.

Noting noise

After about the first series of the LSU-Ole Miss game on ABC last Saturday night, someone in the production truck finally came to their senses and turned down the volume on the ambient crowd noise for the broadcast.

It was an overdue move that served viewers.

All college football broadcasters have leaned into sharing crowd noise in recent seasons, and especially for prime-time games. It's just unnecessary.

It's silly to pay on-air talent and have their contributions drowned out by the noise. If fans wanted to hear crowd noise, they'd try to go to the game.

And if crowd noise is part of the story, find another way to make the point. Show a decibel meter or something but serve viewers and do not assault them with noise they do not need.

Notable

■ ESPN Radio's College Football Campus Tour will be on site in Happy Valley this weekend. Jonathan Zaslow and Amber Wilson will broadcast live for at least two hours leading up to kickoff. The show will air nationally across most ESPN Radio stations, SiriusXM Channel 80, the ESPN App and ESPN streaming platforms.

■ Chris Vosters, who handled play-by-play for last week's game on BTN, twice referred to the Penn State Dance Marathon during the broadcast (THON was the game theme), and each time incorrectly noted how long the 46-hour event lasted.

Once it was 40 hours, another 48.

That's minor and nitpicky but it certainly stood out to blue-and-white faithful.

■ Big Ten Conference teams played 14 nonconference games last week and won 12 of them by an average score of 51-7. It was a shameful display of scheduling, across the board. The only teams that played decent opponents, Maryland and Michigan State, lost to Virginia Tech and Notre Dame, respectively.

■ Longtime TV analyst and former Penn State All-American Matt Millen reached deep in the history to repeatedly compare Penn State running back Carson Hansen to Ed Podolak, who played at Iowa and then for the Kansas City Chiefs (1969-1977). Said Millen, "you have to go back a bit" for this reference. Yep, you do.

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