Which teams play games and how to watch them

College football is back, though Philly sports fans will have to wait a week to see their favorite schools in action.

While Saturday is officially the opening of the college football season, it is known as Week 0, as most NCAA Division I teams start their season on the first Saturday before Labor Day. The first game of Week 0 took place 39 years ago, when Nebraska crushed Penn State at New Jersey’s Giants Stadium in the 1983 Kickoff Classic.

Eleven games are scheduled for Saturday, up from five last season, though none of the teams in the Associated Press’s Top 25 College Football poll will be in action.

The best game seems to be Nebraska versus Northwestern, a Big Ten matchup being played at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland, between two teams looking to turn things around after disappointing 2021 seasons. It’s the first regular-season international game in five years, and part of a five-game deal dubbed the Aer Lingus College Football Classic that was scheduled to start in 2020 but was delayed due to COVID-19.

All start times are Eastern Standard Time:

The Nittany Lions kick off their 2022 season against the Purdue Boilermakers on Thursday, September 1 at 8 p.m.

The game will air on Fox instead of ESPN thanks to Joe Buck’s decision to leave the network and join his old football teammate Troy Aikman in the booth. Monday night football. Fox agreed to let Buck go even though he had one year left on his contract in exchange for an additional pick from this season’s Big Ten football roster, which happened to be Penn State versus Purdue.

Penn State is 15-3-1 all-time against Purdue, dating back to 1951. The last time the two met was in 2019 at Beaver Stadium, with the Nittany Lions posting an easy 35-7 win.

» READ MORE: Nick Singleton’s relentless ability to work could be a key piece in Penn State’s football puzzle