Penn State will host Nevada to open the 2025 college football season
Penn State now knows who it will host to open the 2025 season. The Nittany Lions will welcome Nevada to Beaver Stadium on Aug. 30 of that year. If this sounds familiar, it’s because it is, in a way.
According to Nevada SportsNet, the Lions and Wolf Pack were to meet in State College back in 2017. However, that game was ultimately moved to 2020. It was canceled, of course, because the Big Ten only played conference games during the coronavirus pandemic. While many believed the game would always open the 2025 season, the outlet reported that a contract was not signed by either school for that to be the case as recently as Oct. 20. However, the deal is now done, as Nevada’s official website announced it on Thursday.
Contract terms were not disclosed. Per Nevada SportsNet, Penn State was originally set to pay Nevada $1.45 million to visit Beaver Stadium. It’s unclear if that number has gone up, however, ahead of the now-confirmed matchup date.
Nevada is 2-8 this year after finishing 2021 at 8-5.
The Remainer of the 2025 Penn State schedule is still in flux
Two dates are now set for the Lions in 2025. Besides the Nevada game, it is also set to host Villanova on Sept. 13 of that year. It also hosted the Wildcats in 2021 at Beaver Stadium. It means that Penn State still has one more non-conference slot to fill.
As for the Big Ten schedule, that will not be known for some time. The conference will be forced to make up a new schedule since USC and UCLA are joining it in 2024. It is not yet clear how the league will handle mixing up opponents while also keeping rivalries and oft-played contests that fans have come to expect intact.
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That said, the Big Ten will likely no longer have divisions in 2025. And, while unlikely, it could decide to reduce its nine-game conference schedule model to an eight-game one. Time will tell regarding how all of that will work out.
Franklin happy with the Lions’ progress
As he approaches the change to win his 100th career game as a head coach and 76th as the leader of the Lions on Saturday at Rutgers (3:30 p.m. ET, BTN), James Franklin was asked on Wednesday to reflect on his nine years so far in State College.
“Obviously, you kind of put it into different categories,” Franklin said. “When we first got here, it was under very different times and very challenging times. There’s been a ton of changes.
“Penn State’s a place that isn’t used to a whole lot of changes like we’ve had the last 10 years but I’m looking forward to the direction we’re going and what we’ve done. When you look at the entire picture, I’m pretty proud. Obviously, there are some things that we need to do better and I need to do better. But the overall body of work, I’m pretty proud of.”
