Who will be the play-by-play commentators for Penn State's College Football Playoff game against SMU?
Penn State head coach James Franklin and his team will host SMU in just under two weeks from now, Dec. 21, for what will be one of the biggest games in Beaver Stadium history now that the College Football Playoff has expanded to include on-campus stadiums.
The Nittany Lions received a favorable draw with the No. 6 seed, facing off against No. 11 SMU after the Mustangs lost in the ACC Championship game last night. However, the game will also begin at Noon ET, which will surely draw the ire of fans now that so many big games have kicked off at that time under FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff.
While ESPN will oversee the production of every College Football Playoff game, the broadcast giant will sublicense two of the first-round games to TNT. Penn State’s game will be one of them.
Link: First Impressions from Penn State’s Big Ten title loss to Oregon
However, it will still be ESPN’s top announcers who broadcast each of these games, and we now know that Mark Jones will call the play-by-play with Roddy Jones being the color commentator and Quint Kessenich the sideline reporter.
In addition to Penn State’s game, ESPN also announced Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Holly Rowe will call No. 9 Tennessee at No. 8 Ohio State. Sean McDonough, Greg McElroy and Molly McGrath will be in South Bend, Ind., on Friday, Dec. 20, for No. 10 Indiana vs. No. 7 Notre Dame, while Joe Tessitore, Jesse Palmer, and Katie George will be in Austin for No. 12 Clemson against No. 5 Texas.
ESPN also announced that ‘Inside the College Football Playoff‘ will return for five episodes on ESPN+. The first episode will air on December 17. Additional episodes with behind-the-scenes access will air on Dec. 27, Jan. 7, Jan. 15 and Jan. 24.
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Penn State calls for White Out vs. SMU
White Out games and Noon kicks has been a fun subject among Penn State fans in recent years, but that’s exactly what we’re going to get on Dec. 21, as the program announced its intentions on social media Sunday afternoon. The Nittany Lions also hosted a White Out last month on Nov. 11 when they knocked off Washington, 35-6. This will be the final White Out game at Beaver Stadium’s current capacity, as the university will begin a $700 million renovation project after the season that’s expected to lower capacity by a few thousand. It’ll be completed before the start of the 2027 season.
Earlier this year, Franklin was non-committal when asked if the Lions would hold a second White Out if they hosted a first-round game.
“It may be a White Out and we had nothing to do with it being a white out; it may be a weather white out,” Franklin said way back in July during Big Ten Media Days. “I will say this: Something that me and Pat really haven’t talked about up to this point, but, we feel very strongly that there should be one White Out a year. We’re able to create some really cool environments with a Stripe Out, a helmet strip, which is very close to a White Out. We’re able to create some really good environments.
“I think it’s up for discussion with myself, Pat, and others to say, ‘Hey, we only do one White Out a year, but if we would have a home playoff game, is that something to discuss? This is a different model in college football and we want to do everything we possibly can to put us in the best position to be successful. And if that gives us a little bit extra juice in between Pat Kraft and Mother Nature, we may have one of the biggest White Outs we’ve ever had.”
