It’ll be an 11 a.m. kickoff when the Gophers and Penn State go head-to-head in a Big Ten battle a week from Saturday.
The Nov. 9 showdown at TCF Bank Stadium has been given the 11 a.m. time slot and will be televised nationally on ABC. Minnesota, ranked 13th in the AP poll, enters the game undefeated at 8-0. They’ll square off with fifth-ranked Penn State, also 8-0.
The only remaining question is whether ESPN’s “College GameDay” will broadcast live 8-11 a.m. from Minneapolis. Head coach P.J. Fleck has been lobbying to make it happen, but an announcement about where they’ll bring the popular college football pregame show is unlikely to come until this weekend.
Maybe the fact that ESPN and ABC are affiliated will help the powers that be bring GameDay to Minnesota? The other choice might be to take the show on the road for No. 1 Alabama against No. 2 LSU. That game will be televised on CBS, so maybe that plays a role in the eventual decision?
It’s possible that the Nov. 9 matchup is a preview of the Big Ten championship game. Minnesota leads the West Division and Penn State is tied with Ohio State atop the East Division.
Entering play this weekend, Minnesota, 5-0 in the conference, leads Iowa and Wisconsin (both 3-2 in the conference) by two games in the West with four games to go.
What’s more is that Minnesota, Penn State, Iowa and Wisconsin all are idle this week, setting the stage for a massive Nov. 9 when Hawkeyes and Badgers also meet in Madison.
That will lead into the weekend of Nov. 16, when the Gophers play at Iowa, followed by games at Northwestern on Nov. 23 and the regular-season finale at home against Wisconsin on Nov. 30.
