Penn State's White Out game is official, and it will be the most important contest of the season.
The Penn State Nittany Lions are set up to have one of the top games of the season in early October when they welcome the USC Trojans to Happy Valley.
USC goes coast to coast in the first week of October to visit Penn State in what will be a pivotal point of the Nittany Lions' season. The Nittany Lions' schedule is incredibly manageable, with three games that will decide their season.
The first one is against the Trojans, who will be a top-10 team in the country when they come to Penn State. It is likely that this game will be a top-10 matchup when it happens, and the eyes of college football will be on that game.
First, the White Out at Penn State is one of those games that everyone has circled. Last year, they had it against the Oregon Ducks, where they lost in double overtime. Who knows how the entire future of the Nittany Lions program would be if they pulled that game out?
Now, looking to this year, Penn State needs to get at least one win against USC, at Michigan, and at Washington.
The most manageable one of those games is probably the USC game. Going to the Big House is never fun, and the cross-country trip is never easy, especially against a pesky Washington team.
If the Nittany Lions get one of those three games, they will be in the conversation for the playoffs. If they get two of them, they will be a lock, and if they somehow go 3-0 in those games, they will be a top-5 team in the country.
The way that the rest of the schedule lines up, they should come out of their non-conference games with a fairly easy 3-0 record, setting up the start of Big Ten Play.
They are going to be favored in every one of their games outside of those three.
For the beginning of Matt Campbell's era at Penn State, an early run through the Big Ten would go so far for him to establish himself as a worthy coach for the program.
Slip-ups in these games certainly will not knock him off his pedestal, but they will definitely raise some question marks.
A Penn State run to the playoff immediately reestablishes them as one of the premier programs in college football. To get there, it would go a very long way to beat the Trojans in the White Out with the eyes of the world on it.
What an awesome opportunity.
