Blue White Illustrated

LAST WORD M A T T L I N G E R M A N | L I N G E R M A N M A T T H E W @ G M A I L . C O M n one Saturday afternoon every August, both sidelines of Beaver Stadium are lined with padless players wearing their home blue jerseys and waiting to be approached by re- porters. Media day is the best opportunity for writers and broadcasters to get one- on-one access with players and learn about some of the lesser-known sto- ries that various Nittany Lions have to tell. I've been there, and it's a lot to take in. For many of the players, it's the only time reporters are able to get such close access, so it's a bit of a rush to gather as much information as possible. But as I walked up and down the walls that out- line the field to talk to players, all I could think about was how large Beaver Sta- dium felt that day. In the absence of 100,000 blue-and- white-clad fans, the stadium felt cav- ernous and almost eerie, even on a beautiful summer day. Normally, this would be a random and unimportant observation made by a wide-eyed student journalist. But given the events of the past few months and the uncertainty of what's to come, I can't get the mental image of the empty stadium out of my mind. The idea of playing in that setting – surrounded by bare metal bleachers accompanied by the echo of pads thud- ding – is alien to us. But it might be- come a reality. From a financial perspective, it will be vital for college football to go for- ward this year in some capacity. Foot- ball provides the lion's share of athletic department funding at many universi- ties, and having no season could put tons of nonrevenue sports programs in jeopardy of being permanently can- celed. German soccer and Korean baseball have both had early success with play- ing in empty stadiums, and while there are still plenty of logistical decisions that would have to be made, college football this season without fans is cer- tainly feasible. It would be better to have college football in this strange form than to not have it at all. But at the same time, there may not be a sport in the world in which the crowd plays as big a role as it does in college football. And within that sport, there may not be a team that benefits from the passion of its fans as much as Penn State does. There are numbers to back that theory up – the Nittany Lions have gone 34-3 at home since 2015 – in addition to countless testimonials from people in- volved in every level of the sport. How often have recruits been sold on Penn State by attending the White Out game? How many broadcasters have called it the best atmosphere in the sport? While the Beaver Stadium home field advantage is undoubtedly real – just ask Shea Patterson – to expect a drop in performance isn't giving the student- athletes enough credit. Michal Menet said a few weeks ago that he and his teammates are just waiting for an OK to play regardless of the environment, and that sentiment was echoed by Lamont Wade in May. "The first thing I thought about was going back to my little league days," Wade said. "When I was in the midget league, we would be the last game of the evening. It was 6 p.m. and everybody had been there since 8, so people were leaving after those hours had piled up. By the time we played, there weren't a lot of people there. But we were going hard, playing the game simply because of how much we loved it." As I reflect on the many games I've watched Penn State play at Beaver Sta- dium, questions regarding what a fan- less game would look like crowd my mind. Would the Blue Band still play? Would the lion's roar still fill the sta- dium after Penn State first downs? Would teams have to alter how plays are called, and would opposing of- fenses truly be able to function more fluidly with no crowd noise? Would players have an easier time tracking the football with a solid color background? There are a million other questions to be asked, and a million more that people haven't even thought of yet. But in a way, isn't that interesting? Even if fans are going to be stripped of one of the great joys in sports, there are still going to be plenty of points of in- terest to discuss. Perhaps this won't become a reality. Athletic director Sandy Barbour said in April that if it's not safe to have fans in Beaver Stadium, it may not be safe for student-athletes to be on campus. And maybe something miraculous happens and fans are allowed to line the bleach- ers of the stadium. But if this scenario is the only way we get football in the fall – and that's be- coming increasingly likely – few fans and fewer players would say no. "I love the game, I want to play hard regardless," Wade said. "The film is still going to get sent out. We still want to win, and I've still got to do what I've got to do for my brothers. It's easy when- ever I think about it like that." ■ Home alone O

• Cover