One of the marquee events of the college football season has yet to be assigned a date, as Penn State administrators and head coach James Franklin work toward solidifying the week for the annual White Out game.
And speaking with reporters recently, Franklin shared that higher ups at Penn State are close to making things final, working in concert with the Big Ten and the various networks that broadcast Big Ten games to find an agreeable weekend. But he was also generally mum on any details about when it might actually be.
“As you could imagine, if I could tell you, I would,” Franklin said. “I literally just walked out of a meet with [athletic director] Pat Kraft, [deputy AD] Vinnie James and [football chief of staff] Kevin Threlkel and that was one of the topics. And to be honest with you, it’s not solely my answer or even Pat’s answer. If we want to provide the opponent the experience, the time of day, that our fan base wants and expects, there’s a lot of pushing and pulling and compromising and working with the conference and working with the TV partners to try to find a win-win for everybody. I think you guys have heard me talk about this a little bit already. So I don’t have that answer for you yet. I don’t even completely know.”
As of now, there are three clear weekends for Penn State to place the White Out game: Oct. 5 when UCLA visits, Nov. 2 when Ohio State returns, or a week later on Nov. 9 when Washington comes to Happy Valley. Ohio State has been a frequent recipient of the White Out treatment, and could be the pick again, but welcoming one of the new Big Ten teams with the environment could be in the cards.
The White Out game, and the decision on where to place it, also reverberates around campus, Franklin said, along with being something that networks and the Big Ten seek to work around.
But as the White Out is one of the themed days for Penn State’s home football games — things like homecoming, parents weekend and military appreciation weekend — the decision on which game gets that treatment also affects various offices around campus, from ticketing to alumni affairs as they mobilize around the various games and weekends they play a role in.
So Franklin knows the decision about when to hold the White Out not only matters to him, his team, their fans and the greater college football world, but also the broader campus community.
“And the challenge with that is we’ve got pressure across the campus, as well, because all the other themes, we’ve kind of got to wait for this one and then all the other themes come from that,” Franklin said. “And those other themes impact a bunch of different departments and a bunch of different places on campus. So, as you can imagine, you’re not the only group that wants to know. The fans want to know, ticket office wants to know, and really across campus. Everything from ROTC to everything down is impacted by these decisions.”
Plus, Franklin knows letting a potential date for the White Out slip would cause plenty more headache than excitement, too.
“I got a pretty good idea where I think it’s trending but I don’t know that yet and the worst thing I could do is say one thing to you guys and then it changes or even by saying it to you guys, it impacts the chance of that happening by pissing some people off,” Franklin said. “I don’t want to do that.”
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