Penn State announced today that the Nittany Lions’ season-opening game against the Temple Owls will kickoff at 3:30 p.m. in Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. The game will be televised on ESPN, making it the third of the announced kickoffs to be shown on a member of the ESPN family. So far, five of the team’s 12 games have set kickoff times.

The Owls and Nittany Lions are pretty familiar with each other, having met 43 times, and eight times since 2006. However, the matchups have been pretty lopsided to say the least, as the Owls haven’t won a game against Penn State since 1941, and have lost every game since the two teams tied in 1950. Last year, Penn State handled Temple fairly easily, winning 30-13 at home in a game that gave the Nittany Lions six wins and bowl eligibility.

Despite Penn State’s historic success, Temple is no longer quite the pushover it once was, losing only by one possession in two of the teams’ last four meetings. Temple also looks poised to improve upon its 6-6 record from last year, and this year will have the home field advantage–although it should be noted that at most Temple home games against Penn State, there is a very large population of Penn State fans, that are usually the majority of attendees at the game, so home field may be moot.

Photo: Cameron Hart