James Franklin explains process for selecting Penn State's annual white-out game

White-outs require a lot of organization and planning. Especially at Penn State, the location of the greatest white-out crowd sports has to offer. So the annual selection process for which game the Nittany Lion fans will wear their white is a painstaking process with a lot of conditions to consider.

At Big Ten Media Days, PSU coach James Franklin let everybody underneath the hood, explaining how he and the program go about picking a specific game each year for the white-out. Of course, the 2022 rendition is scheduled for Penn State’s October 22 home game vs. Minnesota. Why that game? Well, let the head coach explain why:

“Yeah, so for us, our white-out game has typically been a night game. With the fireworks and the white T-shirts and clothing on the backdrop of the black sky, it’s pretty special,” revealed Franklin. Though he noted the noon kickoffs can be amazing atmospheres as well. “Although the 12 o’clock games, if you look at the ratings in the Big Ten, have done unbelievably well.”

He then detailed the sneaky survey process Penn State used to figure out what the fans would prefer.

“We didn’t talk about specific games or teams, but we just said, ‘For the white-out, what’s important to you? Night game? Afternoon? 12 o’clock, 2 o’clock, 7 o’clock? Is it the opponent that matters most? So we kind of did this, we mixed it in there with like what’s your favorite thing, the hamburger or the hot dog at the stadium? It was really just setting it up to get to the white-out question. But the data said that most people want a night game.”

With that decision squared away, it was time to examine which games would likely take place at night.

“So we looked at our schedule, the game that we thought had the best chance to be a night game. Another game we had seen was probably going to be a 12 o’clock game, that impacted the decision and that’s where I was leaning. The fans backed that up. So that’s why the choice was made. Then the other thing, there’s some things from a scheduling perspective in the Big Ten, where the way it currently sits is we can’t have night games after a certain point on the schedule, so that limits it as well. And then also if you want all the fans to dress up in white, that becomes more difficult later in the season when people want to wear their hunting gear to stay warm, if that makes sense.”

So James Franklin really had to narrow down a certain date, with a home game, that was likely at night.

“So lot of factors that went into it. I think it’s also maybe caught people a little off-guard because the way the schedule fell up to that point it had pretty much rotated between two opponents, so it kind of set up an expectation. But that’s really just kind of how it played out, if that’s fair.”