Penn State lands prime TV spots to start season, but one game is a head-scratcher

The Big Ten has announced its early season 2019 football television schedule, and Penn State will get two high-profile national windows in the first three weeks of the season.

Penn State will open the season at home at Beaver Stadium against Idaho on Aug. 31. The game will air on the Big Ten Network (Channel 715 on Xfinity!) at 3:30 p.m. The following week, on Sept. 7, Penn State gets Fox’s Saturday evening window at 7:30 p.m., but it’s a bit of a head-scratcher, with the Nittany Lions taking on the out-of-conference State University of New York’s Buffalo Bulls.

After that, Penn State will face off against rival Pittsburgh for the 100th time at noon on Sept. 14 on ABC, the last matchup as part of a four-year deal. Despite the rivalry’s popularity, it’s likely to be the last time the two Pennsylvania powerhouses face off in the regular season for some time, according to Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour.

“We’ve had conversations. I think at this point we’ve both agreed that based on Big Ten and ACC scheduling principles — and it’s a complicating puzzle nowadays — that we’re probably not going to do anything at this point," Barbour said earlier this month.

The start times for Penn State’s seven remaining regular-season games — which include matchups against Michigan, Ohio State, and Michigan State — have not yet been announced.

Here is the 2019 early season TV schedule for Penn State football:

Saturday, Aug. 31: Idaho at Penn State, 3:30 p.m. on the BTN

Saturday, Sept. 7: Buffalo at Penn State, 7:30 p.m. on FOX

Saturday, Sept. 14: Pittsburgh at Penn State, noon on ABC

Saturday, Sept. 21: Bye week

Friday, Sept. 27: Penn State at Maryland, 8 p.m. on FS1

Saturday, Oct. 5: Purdue at Penn State, noon on ABC, ESPN, or ESPN2

Hank Haney, best known as the former coach of PGA superstar Tiger Woods, has been suspended from his SiriusXM PGA Tour radio show over “insensitive comments” he made about women’s golf earlier this week.

“Mr. Haney’s comments on women’s professional golf were insensitive and do not represent the views of the PGA TOUR or SiriusXM,” SiriusXM and the PGA Tour said in a joint statement. “At the PGA TOUR’s instruction Mr. Haney has been suspended from the SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio channel.”

The longtime golf commentator and instructor, who issued an apology to Golf Digest and later posted a statement on Twitter, said he accepted his suspension. SiriusXM says it was reviewing his status as a radio host moving forward.

During a discussion on Wednesday’s show about the U.S. Women’s Open Championship, which began Thursday at Country Club of Charleston in South Carolina, Haney predicted “a Korean” would win, and said he couldn’t name six golfers on the LPGA tour.

“Well, I’d go with Li, if I didn’t have to name a first name, I’d get a bunch of ‘em right,” Haney said.

Haney’s comments drew widespread criticism from several players, including LGPA star Michelle Wie, who wrote on Twitter that “racism and sexism are no laughing matter.”

Longtime USA Today columnist Christine Brennan called for Haney to be fired, writing that both the PGA Tour and SiriusXM would be “condoning racism, sexism and xenophobia” if they let him return to his radio show.

“The sooner Haney and all the Hank Haneys out there are gone from the sport — from every golf course, every commercial, every teaching gig, every interview — the sooner golf has a chance to enter the 20th century before too much more of the 21st goes by,” Brennan wrote.

Hanley coached Woods from 2004 to 2010. He also hosted The Haney Project for the Golf Channel, where he helped former athletes and celebrities like Charles Barkley and Ray Romano on their golf swing.

Was John Kruk there for the game, or the food?

During NBC Sports Philadelphia’s broadcast of the Phillies’ 5-3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals at Citizens Bank Park on Thursday afternoon, Kruk and play-by-play announcer Tom McCarthy were delivered a tray of ribs during the fourth inning.

“This is going to get sloppy,” Kruk boasted.

Later in the broadcast, Kruk will still munching on the ribs when the broadcast came back from a commercial, which the former Phillies slugger grudgingly acknowledged.

“This game is disrupting my rib eating,” Kruk joked.

“You’ve done a nice job, so far. I’ve got to commend you on that,” McCarthy responded.