Blue White Illustrated

with the Americans with Disabilities Act). The timing was not great. Penn State was in the midst of its worst stretch under Joe Paterno, and that was just the start. The early 2000s were also the beginning of the HDTV boom, which, coupled with the proliferation of cable sports channels, would make stay- ing home a much more enticing option than it had been a few years earlier. Un- less your vision of an ideal Penn State game day included a stop downtown to celebrate victory or drown sorrows, you could have a perfectly enjoyable experi- ence without getting off your couch. When I was attending Penn State in the 1980s, there was a robust debate over whether the south end zone should be enclosed. Traditionalists argued that an upper deck would obscure the view of Mount Nittany, which was glorious on those crisp fall days when the landscape was draped in amber and orange. If the game was on TV, you could count on a panoramic shot coming out of a com- mercial break, with Keith Jackson or Frank Broyles rhapsodizing about the trees in State College. Still, these were not Audubon Society meetings. A more pragmatic faction of fans argued that stadiums were for sporting events and that anyone who wanted to admire Mount Nittany should spend his money on hiking boots rather than football tickets. We all know who won that debate – money talks – but even though you can't see more than a sliver of Mount Nittany anymore, the south end zone continues to offer an impressive view. It's just that the view is of crazed student fans – "The Nation's No. 1 Student Section" accord- ing to ESPN The Magazine – cheering themselves hoarse. Has Beaver Stadium grown too big for Penn State's needs? Was the university too ambitious in building the second- largest stadium in the country and the fourth-largest in the world? We'll likely get our answers in the coming years as Franklin works to bring the Nittany Li- ons back from the sanction-related mess they're in now. If they can get back to where they were in the 1980s and '90s when they were routinely enter- taining national championship ambi- tions, we'll find out whether there are enough fans to fill the place on a regular basis. I can't help but think that there are. Even during the worst of times, Penn State's home attendance never really nosedived. It just kinda dipped. If an av- erage attendance of slightly under 97,000 fans per game is a problem, it's one that all but a very small handful of schools would love to have. ■ F O O T B A L L Full house set to greet Ohio St. Penn State's upcoming game against Ohio State in Beaver Stadi- um is sold out, athletics officials announced Oct. 2. The White Out game will kick off at 8 p.m. and air on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2, the Penn State Sports Network and GoPSUs- ports.com. All ADA seats for the contest also are sold out in 106,572-seat Beaver Stadium. The Penn State-Ohio State clash annually is one of the nation's most highly anticipated contests. The teams will be playing at night for the third consecutive year and for the sixth time since 2005. They have met every year since Penn State began Big Ten competition in 1993. The Nittany Lions and Buck- eyes are East Division rivals start- ing this season and continue to play annually. Penn State fans pushed the home attendance up an average of 7,110 fans (7.2 percent) per game during the first three games of this season in comparison to the initial three home contests in 2013. The crowd of 102,910 for the team's most re- cent home game against North- western was the largest for a day game in Beaver Stadium since the 2011 season. Ticket sales for home games against Ohio State (sold out) and Maryland (Nov. 1) have already sur- passed 100,000. Patrick Mansell

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