Penn State football to be featured in HBO Sports’ 24/7 College Football show

Penn State head coach James Franklin said the program has been mulling it over for about three years, but now the Nittany Lions will officially be featured on the HBO Sports’ series, 24/7 College Football.

The show features a Hard Knocks-style, in-depth look at a week of preparations and game day. For Penn State, it will be the week of the Oct. 5 Homecoming game against Purdue, and the show will air on Wednesday, Oct. 9, at 10 p.m.

“After talking with people from other programs that did it, they felt like it was a positive," Franklin said Wednesday. "It’s an opportunity to get our program out there on a national scale and allow people to see behind the curtain a little bit.”

While having cameras in and around the facilities and State College for a week might be a distraction for some programs, Franklin said he wasn’t worried about it. One of the biggest reasons is the team’s weekly show, Unrivalved: The Penn State Football Story.

“For us ... the cameras are already around all the time,” Franklin said. “Between the coaches and the leadership council, we didn’t feel like it would be a whole lot different from what we already do.”

The series also will feature Arizona State, Florida, and Washington State.

“For many years, we have been enamored with the story lines and unrivaled traditions of college football, and we’re excited for the opportunity to expand the 24/7 franchise into the realm of college sports,” Rick Bernstein, executive producer of HBO Sports, said in a statement. “Viewers will feel the tremendous electricity of some of the best atmospheres in the country, and see the meticulous preparation and challenges facing these programs in the build-up to game day and during the game action.”