Penn State-West Virginia: Start time, channel, how to watch and stream

Penn State will be in the spotlight Saturday, as the Nittany Lions kickoff their highly anticipated college football season against West Virginia in primetime on NBC.

James Franklin’s squad starts the season ranked No. 7, coming off an 11-2 season and a Rose Bowl victory. Many pundits predict we’ll see the Nittany Lions in the Big Ten championship, and Penn State has become an attractive pick to make it all the way to the College Football Playoff, so Franklin is expecting an electric crowd at Beaver Stadium.

“This is kind of like the sneaky White Out. It will be a great environment,” Frankin said at a press conference. “It will be a great environment for college football, let alone specifically for Penn State and the Big Ten. I think we’ve done all the things we can do. Now we’ve just got to go do it.”

All eyes will be on sophomore Drew Allar, the five-star recruit ranked the top quarterback prospect in the country by 247Sports last year. Just about everyone expects Allar to start at quarterback Saturday, but Franklin declined to name him the starter earlier this week.

“We don’t need an official proclamation from the head coach to understand that the Drew Allar Era at Penn State starts now,” wrote Inquirer columnist Mike Jensen.

Here’s everything you need to know to watch or stream the Penn State-West Virginia matchup:

Penn State vs. West Virginia will air Saturday on NBC, with kickoff scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Eastern. It’s the first game under’s NBC’s multi-year deal to broadcast Big Ten games in primetime, which it’s calling B1G Saturday Night, and it’ll be Penn State’s first time appearing on the network since a 2006 blowout loss to Notre Dame.

Calling the game will be NBC’s new Big Ten team — Noah Eagle and Todd Blackledge, who will be making his network debut after calling college football games for ESPN and ABC since 2006. Kathryn Tappen will report from the sidelines.

For Blackledge, a former Penn State quarterback who led the team to a National Championship in 1982, Saturay’s game will be something of a homecoming.

“I couldn’t have scripted it any better than to be in my old alma mater in Happy Valley, for a game we used to play every year,” Blackledge said.

NBC will also debut a new on-site pregame show — B1G College Countdown — Saturday at 7 p.m. The show, hosted by Maria Taylor and Ahmed Fareed, will feature analysts Matt Cassel, Joshua Perry, and Michael Robinson — another former Penn State quarterback who led the Nittany Lions to a Big Ten title and an Orange Bowl win in 2005.

Nicole Auerbach, a writer for The Athletic and an analyst on the Big Ten Network, will make her debut as NBC Sports’ college football insider.

Like ESPN’s College Gameday, B1G College Countdown will broadcast live from a different campus each week — they’ll be in State College on Saturday. The crew will also handle pregame and halftime coverage for other college football games on NBC and Peacock on Saturdays.

Penn State vs. West Virginia will stream on Peacock, NBC’s subscription streaming service.

The game will also stream on any so-called skinny bundle that carries NBC, including fuboTV, YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV, and DirecTV Stream. Most offer a free trial.

If you’re looking to stream the game for free and you live in or around Philadelphia, your best option is using a digital antenna, since the game will air on broadcast television on NBC10.

Philly sports fans can tune in to Penn State-West Virginia on 1210 WPHT thanks to a multi-year deal signed in 2019.

Returning to the booth for his 24th season calling Penn State football is play-by-play announcer Steve Jones. He’ll be joined by analyst Jack Ham, a former Nittany Lions linebacker and NFL Hall of Famer who won four Super Bowls during the 1970s with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Outside of Philadelphia, here is a list of the affiliates carrying Penn State football.

You can also tune into the game on Sirius XM channel 85.

Penn State and West Virginia, once close rivals, haven’t faced each other on the field since 1992, when West Virginia joined the Big East. The Mountaineers have been in the Big 12 since 2012.

It will be the 60th time the two teams have faced off, dating back to 1904, with Penn State holding a 48-9-2 edge. The Nittany Lions are heavily favored against the Mountaineers, who are coming off a 5-7 year that has head coach Neal Brown on the hot seat before the season even begins.

Franklin said he’s happy that it’s a regional game but isn’t dwelling on the old rivalry, telling reporters most of his players weren’t even born the last time the two teams played.

“We talk about the history of the game,” Franklin said. “That’s what it is, it’s history.”

Saturday’s game is part of a two-game series the schools announced way back in 2013. Penn State and West Virginia will play again next season in Morgantown.

Penn fans will have to wait a couple weeks for their season opener. The Quakers will travel to central New York to take on the Colgate Raiders on Sept. 16 at noon on ESPN+.

The University of Delaware kicked off its season Thursday against Stony Brook, with the Blue Hens defeating the Seawolves, 37-13. Penn State will host Delaware next week in a game that will stream exclusively on Peacock.

Here are the Philly-area schools playing this weekend:

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