UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State will clash with Big Ten Conference foes Iowa and Ohio State in prime time during the 2012 season. The Nittany Lions will be playing at least one regular season night game for the 13th consecutive season.
Coach Bill O’Brien’s Nittany Lions will visit the Hawkeyes on Oct. 20, with kick set for BTN at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT in Kinnick Stadium. The teams will be playing in primetime for the third time in the past four seasons in what will be their final meeting until at least 2015.
Penn State will host border rival Ohio State on Oct. 27 for a 6 p.m kick in Beaver Stadium on ESPN or ESPN2. A determination on which network will nationally televise the Big Ten Leaders Division clash may not be made until 12 days before the contests. Penn State and Ohio State will be meeting in primetime for the fourth time in the past eight seasons (2005, ’07, ’08, ’12).
The Iowa and Ohio State games are the Nittany Lions’ first announced kick times for the upcoming season.
The Penn State-Iowa series is tied, 12-12, with the Nittany Lions winning, 13-3, last year in Happy Valley. The Penn State-Iowa clash will cap BTN’s eight-game schedule of Big Ten primetime contests. The Nittany Lions will be playing in BTN’s final primetime game for the second consecutive game, having won at Northwestern last season.
The Big Ten Network is available to more than 80 million homes through agreements with more than 300 cable, satellite and telco providers in all 50 states and Canada. Armstrong, Blue Ridge and Adams Cable, though, do not carry BTN in Pennsylvania and the Medina and Youngstown, Ohio areas. More than 35,000 Penn State alumni live in the communities served by the three cable providers in Pennsylvania and the Medina and Youngstown areas, in addition to thousands more fans and current Penn State students.
The Penn State-Ohio State clash annually is one of the nation’s most highly anticipated contests. The division rivals have met every year since Penn State began Big Ten competition in 1993, with Ohio State having a 14-13 edge in the series. The Nittany Lions won, 20-14, last year in Columbus.
Every Nittany Lion football game has been televised the past eight seasons and 216 of the last 218 Penn State contests overall have been on TV. All Nittany Lion football and basketball games air on the Penn State Sports Network and http://www.GoPSUsports.com online.
Fourteen Big Ten home football games will air in prime time this season on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 or the Big Ten Network. From 2007-12, a total of 83 Big Ten home football contests will have been televised in prime time.
O’Brien and 10 other head coaches will be participating in the seven state, 18-stop Penn State Coaches Caravan, starting April 30 in Philadelphia and ending May 16 in Buffalo. O’Brien is scheduled to appear at all 18 events. For all the Coaches Caravan event dates and locations, go to http://www.GoPSUsports.com online.
Penn State returns 36 letterwinners and 10 starters for the upcoming season (five on offense, four on defense and one specialist), as well as 17 players that have starting experience. The 17 additional players with starting experience have a combined total of 78 starts (44 defense/34 offense) among them.
Season tickets are available for the 2012 season, with the Nittany Lions hosting five teams that played in a bowl game last year. Penn State will host Ohio State (Oct. 27), Wisconsin (Nov. 24-Senior Day), Northwestern (Oct. 6-Homecoming), Indiana (Nov. 17), Navy (Sept. 15), Temple (Sept. 22) and Ohio (Sept. 1) in Beaver Stadium this fall.
For information on joining the Nittany Lion Club and purchasing season tickets, as well as club seating in Beaver Stadium, fans can call 1-800-648-8269 (1-800-NITTANY) from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays or visit the Bryce Jordan Ticket Center.
Penn State Athletics is on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pennstatenittanylions and Twitter at http://www.gopsusports.com/ot/twitter.html online.
2012 Penn State Football Schedule
Sept. 1: Ohio
Sept. 8: at Virginia
Sept. 15: Navy
Sept. 22: Temple
Sept. 29: **at Illinois
Oct. 6: *Northwestern (Homecoming)
Oct. 20: *at Iowa, 8:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. CT (Big Ten Network)
Oct. 27: **Ohio State, 6:00 p.m. (ESPN or ESPN2)
Nov. 3: **at Purdue
Nov. 10: *at Nebraska
Nov. 17: **Indiana
Nov. 24: **Wisconsin (Senior Day)
Dec. 1: Big Ten Championship Game; Indianapolis
* Big Ten game
** Big Ten Leaders Division game