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What is the Penn State-Nevada point spread? The Lions are a big favorite for their season opener

Greg Pickelby:Greg Pickel•05/19/25•

GregPickel

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Quarterback Drew Allar. (Credit: Ryan Snyder | Blue White Illustrated)

Penn State football opens the 2025 season when it takes on Nevada at Beaver Stadium on Aug. 30. The game, which does not yet have a television station assignment or kick time, is now on the betting board for the first time this offseason. DraftKings released a number of Week 1 spreads on Monday morning. It makes the Nittany Lions a 43.5-point favorite over the Wolfpack. No total is posted yet.

The contest marks the first meeting between the Big Ten and Mountain West programs. The game was scheduled in November 2022. Head coach Jeff Choate enters his second season at the top of the program’s organizational depth chart. He guided his team to a 3-10 mark a year ago. Nevada has not had a winning season since 2021, when it finished 8-5. The team has just seven wins over the last three seasons. According to Nevada Sports Net, the team added 53 players this offseason and saw 22 players hit the portal.

More: Penn State athletics takes latest step in highly successful season

“I really feel like there’s a shift in our locker room,” Choate told the outlet. “One of the things I talked at the end of the season with a lot of our players about was who these foundational players are going to be for us. When I got here, there was no foundation because these weren’t players that we had recruited. They were trying to figure out who we were. We were trying to figure out who they were. And I think that was hard on them. I think continuity is a really big part of success in college football. And when you’ve had three head coaches in four years, it makes it hard to bring that continuity.”

“I think we’ve got an opportunity to provide that continuity. I think we’ve got a really good foundation with some senior leaders that are invested in this program and understand what we’re about as a coaching staff and what my expectations and my standards are. They’ve been doing a fantastic job of living up to those standards and expectations thus far, and I’m excited to see how this continues to progress.”

Nevada is one of three non-conference foes for Penn State in 2025. It also hosts Villanova and FIU before getting into Big Ten play. James Franklin’s team will be favored by multiple touchdowns in each of those games, just like it is against the Wolfpack. Time and TV details for all three of those contests at Beaver Stadium will be out by the end of May.

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