Penn State hockey will take on North Dakota at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on October 17, 2020, according to an official announcement from the Fighting Hawks released Monday.

Rumors about Guy Gadowsky’s program playing a game at the home of the NHL’s Nashville Predators have swirled for more than a year now, and if North Dakota’s past destination games are any indication, this game could very well be the grandest stage Penn State has ever played on in the regular season.

The Nittany Lions have made 21 regular season appearances at NHL rinks since rebooting their Division I hockey program in 2012. Most of those have come at either the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia or PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, and the team has also played a handful of games at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

However, none of those prior matchups were as grand of an occasion as the team’s upcoming game against North Dakota, which is one of college hockey’s blue-blood programs.

North Dakota is to hockey what schools like Kansas, Kentucky, and Duke are to college basketball. This is a program that’s developed legitimate NHL star-power and is always a contender for a spot in the Frozen Four. Sure, Penn State faces off against prestigious hockey programs in Big Ten play — including Notre Dame, Michigan, and Minnesota — but those schools are either “prestigious” in every sport or, well, not very good right now.

In the most literal sense of the term, North Dakota is college hockey royalty — right up there with the likes of Boston College, Boston University, and Minnesota-Duluth. Because of that, the Fighting Hawks’ fanbase travels notoriously well.

North Dakota’s hockey team last played a “destination game” at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. The team beat Minnesota 3-1, but the Fighting Hawks’ team-sanctioned events surrounding the game were spectacles that are perhaps unrivaled in college hockey. Most of the 7,412 fans who traveled to Vegas for that game were North Dakota supporters and made the rink located more than 1,500 miles from Grand Forks feel like home.

On top of that, former North Dakota hockey star and current Washington Capital TJ Oshie was in town to buy beers for hundreds of fans at the team’s pre-game tailgate (reminder: this was for a hockey game). Although there might not be any celebrity guests in 2020, North Dakota has big plans for its trip to Nashville.

According to the Grand Forks Herald, North Dakota has blocked off 2,500 hotel rooms in 27 spots located around Nashville in order to accommodate its well-traveling fans. The university has also rented out the Wildhorse Saloon from 8 p.m. to midnight Friday, October 16, and it’ll sell 2,000 tickets for $49 a pop in order to attend a team-sanctioned party at the popular bar located just off Broadway in downtown Nashville.

Additionally, the Fighting Hawks will have a pregame party outside Bridgestone Arena from 1 p.m. until gates open for the game. That party will be free and open to the public. North Dakota is also working with the Grand Forks International Airport in order to supply fans with direct flights to Nashville for the game.

“A question might be, ‘What do you anticipate? How many tickets do you plan to sell or hope to sell,'” Jody Hodgson, the general manager of North Dakota’s home rink, said. “We absolutely plan and absolutely anticipate a sellout. We believe Bridgestone Arena is going to be full to the rafters when the puck gets dropped in October 2020.”

Yes, you read that correctly: A college hockey team in North Dakota expects to sell out an NHL rink with a capacity of more than 17,000 fans for a regular season game at the beginning of the season.

If you support the Nittany Lions and are reading this, I’d take North Dakota’s planned takeover of Nashville as a challenge. Penn State fans travel well, too, and I’m sure The Roar Zone and Nashville’s chapter of the Penn State Alumni Association will bring plenty of blue and white to Music City next year.

Penn State football has a home game against Iowa scheduled for the same day as the hockey matchup in Nashville, but that doesn’t change the fact that Guy Gadowsky’s program will play on its biggest-ever regular season stage next year.