West Virginia to Kickoff 2023 Season Against Penn State on NBC

The details surrounding WVU football’s 2023 season opening game are now official.

The Mountaineers will battle Penn State at Beaver Stadium on Saturday, September 2. Kickoff for this Week 1 game will be at 7:30 pm ET and the game will be broadcast nationally on NBC.

This announcement now being released by the schools comes in conjunction with the Big Ten’s launch of its new weekly Saturday night games.

Kicking off Big Ten Saturday Night with a bang!@WVUfootball | @PennStateFball pic.twitter.com/TLsrO0keOa

— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) May 6, 2023

Rumors and speculation about these details have been swirling around on social media for weeks, but they are now set in stone for the public to know. The start time was actually leaked by PSU outside linebacker Abdul Carter posted an image of the information on Instagram.

Was Kickoff Time for West Virginia-Penn State Season Opener Leaked?

West Virginia and Penn State are set to play for the first time since 1992 when they meet to start the 2023 season. It’s one of two major non-conference rivals on the schedule for West Virginia, the other being Pitt in the Backyard Brawl, although calling Penn State a rival may negate the lopsided nature of the series itself.

Penn State has dominated the series since its inception with a 48-9-2 advantage. They’ve won the last four meetings and are 34-2-1 since 1956 with both of those losses occurring in Morgantown.

The first of the two-game renewed series will be in State College with next year’s game in Morgantown. West Virginia’s last win in State College came in 1954, more than a decade before NCAA all-time winningest head coach Joe Paterno took over for Penn State.

This year, early expectations are in favor of Penn State with them being considered one of the top teams in the country and West Virginia coming off a disappointing 5-7 year. Although as everyone saw with TCU’s run last season, anything can happen.