How Penn State’s White Out – the stadium spectacle – ended up on Peacock

There was no TV moment last spring as the Big Ten TV draft unfolded. With a flurry of emails between CBS, NBC and Fox executives – as well as a few follow-up phone calls to the conference to ensure contractual agreements were being met – each network consulted with its board and planned how to deliver its broadcast packages was able to position the best picks with him.

A college football televised draft is just as sterile as it sounds.

“It’s just emails flying back and forth,” said Kerry Kenny, chief operating officer of the Big Ten Conference. “We benefit from all of these partners working to make the Big Ten as good as it can be, but at the end of the day they are all competitors. What’s good for Fox, what’s good for NBC, what’s good for CBS isn’t always good for the other network affiliates at this moment.”

The Big Ten is in the midst of a seven-year media rights deal with Fox, CBS and NBC that began in July 2023. Penn State’s role in this deal was interesting in that fans were used to so much of it – like the start times being announced months in advance for the White Out, and the hope of being in prime time for that White Out game against Playing Ohio State or Michigan – everything looks different now. Trying to protect Penn State’s annual white-out game and move it to a prime-time slot is more difficult than ever.

This year, Penn State’s 16th full-stadium White Out will be played against Washington on Saturday at 8 p.m. The game follows an emotional disappointment following Penn State’s loss to No. 2 Ohio State. It feels strange that the annual, envious-filled spectacle is taking place so late in the season. It’s also strange that it won’t be on traditional television, but will instead be streaming on Peacock.

How Penn State ended up here is a side effect of trying to ensure the game is played at night, as Penn State fans wanted and athletic director Pat Kraft advocated for, while also making sure network affiliates get what they get make a Wish. No, Penn State wasn’t necessarily relegated to Peacock, but instead was shoved into a window that fulfilled the desire for a night game.

When the television partners met in the spring to determine who would pick the first, second and third games this week, Penn State had already made it clear that it was hoping for a prime-time white-out game.

Thanks to an 18-team conference that spans three time zones and has more network partners than previous media rights deals, fans will have to continue to adapt. Only once before, in 2015, did the White Out take place in November. The 8pm start time was only announced last Saturday.

Even the raucous white-out environment that has become the calling card of the Penn State fan base, a bucket list item for sports fans and a made-for-TV spectacle, will be a little harder to find for fans on Saturday when Peacock becomes subscription-based Streaming service. This is the second time Penn State football has appeared on the platform, having featured in last year’s game against Delaware.

Still, in some ways it might feel like a step down, coming just a week after State College was the epicenter of the sport, hosting ESPN’s “College GameDay” and Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff.” But one of the reasons the game ended up on Peacock is thanks to NBC’s long-standing relationship with Notre Dame. Part of that deal allows up to two games per year to be played in prime time on NBC. Florida State-Notre Dame was slated for NBC primetime long before the Big Ten draft, Kenny said. However, NBC’s time slot wasn’t the only option. If Penn State had beaten Ohio State last week, this weekend’s game could have been at 3:30 p.m. on CBS or in prime time on Fox.

“We always knew that NBC’s first pick that week, November 9th, was the Big Ten pick, whether it was the number one pick that week, the number two pick or the number three pick among the three broadcast partners , was always like, “I’m going to end up at Peacock,” Kenny said.

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Another new feature this season is that “White Out” will also be showing in 23 different IMAX theaters, primarily targeting audiences in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Washington – unfortunately, the closest IMAX to Happy Valley is more than 90 minutes remote in York Still, it will be the first college football game to be broadcast live in select IMAX theaters, perhaps shedding light on what this next frontier of off-venue sports viewing might look like.

NBC tried a similar approach with the Olympics opening ceremonies in IMAX this year and also had success by showing the 2024 NBA Finals outside mainland China and the League of Legends Championship in China and Korea. Depending on each theater’s food and beverage offerings that weekend, fans were able to drink beer, order dinner and experience the game in a different way – all without having to navigate postgame traffic at Beaver Stadium.

“First and foremost, it’s about the entire community experience, and then we’ve specifically designed each of our theaters to be as immersive as possible, both from a visual and audio perspective,” said Mark Welton, global president of IMAX Theaters. “It really feels like you’re there at the game. The crowd, the noise. … People are cheering. It’s like being in the stadium.”

Admittedly, the timing of the White Out, the broadcast on Peacock, and the ability to see it in IMAX feels a little strange since Penn State’s biggest home game of the season – and one of the most important in Beaver Stadium history – was played last weekday at noon as part of Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff.” Despite all the fan criticism of a Noon kick – and there was a lot of it – the Big Noon exposure machine served its purpose. Penn State-Ohio State drew 9.94 million viewers, an increase from the 7.3 million viewers who normally watch when the game is broadcast in prime time.

Last 25 years of Ohio State-Penn State Games:

FOX Big Noon Games – 9.4 million viewers

All other OSU-PSU games – 7.3 million

I look forward to hosting it again next year.

— Michael Mulvihill (@mulvihill79) November 6, 2024

Fans will still turn out in droves for the White Out on Saturday, but this season Penn State has thrown out so many variations on a White Out theme – a “White Out Energy” game against Illinois, a helmet stripe game and a Strip-Out – that the run-up to Saturday feels different. Even head coach James Franklin, who typically wears white to his Monday media session during White Out week, did not do so this week. The whole tenor of the week following a loss to Ohio State is not associated with the usual hype that prevails in the run-up to the annual stadium spectacle.

Part of the challenge going forward will be how willing the Big Ten is to help Penn State in the White Out while acknowledging that the TV partners hold the cards.

Kraft contacted the Big Ten at draft time last spring to offer his opinion on what the White Out meant for Penn State fans, the sport and the local community. It is often used as a recruiting weekend for other Penn State sports outside of football. Fans prefer the game to take place at night so that the visual spectacle of over 100,000 fans in white shirts and shaking white pompoms appears in the night sky. Hotels are booked months in advance.

Penn State knew Fox would make the Ohio State game the Big Noon. It also knew that the September home game against Illinois would be in the evening because of homecoming. It could have either doubled the homecoming and white out or caused a midday white out for Ohio State. Instead, it was decided that Washington knew the start time would be no earlier than 3:30 p.m. Penn State wanted time to make fans aware of the game theme – which it did in July – and wanted enough time to do all the usual marketing efforts behind it.

“Washington was unique because it’s a time of year where after daylight saving time and a 3:30 a.m. game, it gets dark pretty quickly,” Kenny said. “We looked at that date and Commissioner (Tony) Petitti and I talked to Pat about it at length.”

It’s never too early to take a look at Penn State’s 2025 home schedule, which includes games at Beaver Stadium against Oregon and Nebraska. While a prime-time white out against Oregon seemed like a deal a few TV deals ago, today it’s anything but a given.

“We are committed to ensuring that, even in this new, changing environment of college football, we continue to find a way to ensure that the White Out is a tradition that has some legs to survive and truly thrive into the future said Kenny.

(Photo: Dan Rainville / USA Today)