ESPN’s College GameDay and Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff both coming to Happy Valley. What to know

The No. 3 Penn State Nittany Lions will host the No. 4 Ohio State Buckeyes on Saturday afternoon in a highly-anticipated game that’s drawn the attention of two major college football television shows.

Both ESPN’s College GameDay and Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff will be on site — the first time both programs have ever been at Penn State at the same time, according to a press release from the athletics department.

Both shows will film around the Bryce Jordan Center, and fans looking to be a part of either of the show’s crowds will have to get up early to do so. GameDay’s crowd pit opens up at 7:30 a.m., and pregame at Big Noon Kickoff’s pregame tailgate will start at 8:30 a.m., although the show reminded fans online to get there earlier for a closer seat.

These popular college football programs travel to different high-profile college football matchups each weekend, and bring with them a panel of former athletes and coaches, television personalities and sports analysts to help predict outcomes, talk football and host games and activities with the fans.

This weekend will mark College GameDay’s 24th visit to Happy Valley, with the most recent coming in September 2022, when the Nittany Lions upended the Auburn Tigers.

This is also the 13th time that College GameDay has covered a Penn State-Ohio State game, breaking a deadlock with Alabama and Louisiana State for GameDay’s most-frequently covered matchup, according to Penn State’s game notes.

Big Noon Kickoff will be making its second appearance at Penn State this year, and will be covering the Nittany Lions for the third time this season. The Nittany Lions were featured as the Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff game in its wins against West Virginia in August and UCLA earlier this month, per the notes. This weekend will be Big Noon Kickoff’s 12th trip to Happy Valley.

A tradition that each of these shows observe is the belittling of the rival team with homemade signs. Any fan that attends Big Noon Kickoff with a homemade sign has a chance of winning a $500 prize, game tickets and free food — given that your sign is voted as the best.

While College GameDay doesn’t offer out any prizes for the best homemade sign at their program, various signs are regularly displayed on ESPN and the network’s social media pages as a part of the programming. Fox displays the signs on their program as well.

GameDay will set up outside the Bryce Jordan Center’s Gate C, and Big Noon Kickoff will be outside of Gate B, per the release. At 11:30 a.m., the crews of both shows will move inside Beaver Stadium for the remainder of their program.

College GameDay will air on ESPN and ESPNU from 9 a.m. to noon., and Big Noon Kickoff will air on Fox from 10 to 11:30 a.m.