Penn State football fans never waited so long to find out their signature event of the fall.
Finally, the White Out game in Beaver Stadium has been settled — for a later-than-usual, second Saturday of November.
Welcome to the Big Ten, Washington Huskies.
The Nittany Lions will keep their raucous, monochromatic, party tradition going for their most visible home game of the season against one of the four new additions to the Big Ten in 2024. Washington will make its first-ever visit to State College a week after the Ohio State Buckeyes show up.
Neither game time has been announced yet.
Usually, the White Out opponent, date and time is known by the end of May. But an expanded Big Ten and volleying TV partners has appeared to complicate the scheduling in 2024.
Penn State also announced its other themes for home games this week — but no more start times.
The Lions will play their Stripe Out and Helmet Stripe games — White Out warm-ups with much of Beaver Stadium wearing white — against UCLA on Oct. 5 and Ohio State on Nov. 2.
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Though coach James Franklin said last month that he'd like to ensure all preferred White Out ingredients each year (premier opponent, prime time viewing, September-October placement), time and placement have usually won out.
The Washington game will be the second-latest of Penn State's 15 full-stadium White Outs. Only the 2015 game vs. Michigan, on Nov. 21, was later. That also was the only White Out to kick off before 3:30 p.m.
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Every White Out since then has kicked off at 7:30 p.m. or later.
FOX, however, changed the White Out dynamic in recent years by scheduling its highest-profile games on Big Noon Kickoff. Since 2021, the Lions have played top opponents Ohio State and Michigan at noon each year.
And so Penn State preserved its prime-time White Out scene by scheduling Auburn, Minnesota and Iowa the past three seasons.
Still, the only other scheduled Nittany Lions start times are the opening two weeks, both noon games at West Virginia (Aug. 31) and at home vs. Bowling Green (Sept. 7).
Penn State will be playing Washington for just the fourth time. Its last was a 35-28 victory in the 2017 Fiesta Bowl.
Frank Bodani covers Penn State football for the York Daily Record and USA Today Network. Contact him at fbodani@ydr.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @YDRPennState.
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