The options for Penn State’s 2023 White Out game looked slim. A primetime season-opening kickoff against West Virginia seemed like the only avenue to play the game at night, signaling debate that the White Out could be played in daylight for the first time since 2015.
Under the Big Ten’s new media rights deal, signed last August, three major networks were paired to three defined time slots. Fox was paired with the noon ET kickoff slot, CBS with 3:30 p.m. and NBC with primetime.
So how exactly was CBS able to retain an 8 p.m. kick on Sep. 23 for Penn State’s 2023 White Out against Iowa?
Despite agreeing to pick up seven Big Ten games in 2023 — the first year of the conference’s seven-year, $7 billion media rights deal — CBS’s contract with the SEC doesn’t expire until after this upcoming season.
For this reason, CBS is not married to its traditional midafternoon slot with the Big Ten until 2024.
CBS will present its seven Big Ten games in various time slots this fall, per a release, opening the door for a primetime White Out pickup.
If not West Virginia or Iowa, Michigan was presumed by many as a legitimate option to take on Penn State in the annual spectacle on Nov. 11.
With NBC’s primetime slot for that day now filled by Ohio State and Michigan State, however, a noon kickoff on Fox seems to be the most likely option for the Wolverines and Nittany Lions.
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