The Penn State football team's schedule starts out with what should be a warmup for the rest of the 2025-26 season. The Nittany Lions open with a three-week stretch at home against Nevada, FIU, and Villanova. After their first bye week in Week 4, though, it's a Big Ten race to the end and it all starts at Beaver Stadium against Oregon.
If that's not enough to have the Ducks, who beat the Nittany Lions in the 2024 Big Ten Championship Game, as the first legit competition of the season, Penn State announced that it will also be its White Out game.
The Nittany Lions are an early favorite in this highly-anticipated contest. FanDuel already has its betting lines open for the game and Penn State is favored by 4.5-points well in advance of Week 5.
Betting lines, especially this far out from the game, don't indicate that the Nittany Lions has this match wrapped up. They're coming off an eight-point loss in the Big Ten Championship to the Ducks, 45-37, and Oregon has a chance to be a rude awakening for a Penn State team coming off a lighter start to the season. The Ducks are heading into this match with a two-game win streak against the Nittany Lions in the programs' histories as well. Currently, FanDuel has the Oregon moneyline at +138 and Penn State's at -166.
FanDuel also has an over/under line at 52.5 for Sept. 27, which will be interesting to see if the 2024 Big Ten Championship Game's 82-point total should've indicated that the Nittany Lions and Ducks will shatter the White Out game line.
There's one key difference between these two teams ahead of the 2025-26 season: returners. Penn State's batch of returners is elite from defensemen to offensive linemen to ball handlers to quarterbacks. Oregon, on the other hand, had a bunch of stars move beyond Eugene: Quarterback Dillon Gabriel, running back Jordan James, defensive linemen Derrick Harmon and Jordan Burch, cornerbacks Jabbar Muhammad and Dontae Manning, and multiple offensive linemen. The list doesn't end there either.
The Ducks do have, though, known strength in their wide receiver corps. Unlike the Nittany Lions whose wideout group has yet to showcase if its the change Penn State needed on the receiving side, Oregon has consistency with Evan Stewart and Kenyon Sadiq. The Ducks also have five-star Dakorien Moore entering the mix.
Whether a Nittany Lions fan or a Ducks fan, the White Out game at Beaver Stadium is a must-win for both teams. It's essentially early proof of who's a serious contender for a national title. If the Nittany Lions don't come out with a win after having an entire sea of a stadium rallying for the them, the season is only going to get tougher from there on out. It's best for Penn State to tally an early Big Ten win and redemption from the conference championship rather than attempt to trudge uphill from September until the end.
The Sept. 27 contest is set for 7:30 p.m. EST and will broadcast on NBC.