Originally the plan today was to write a story about the status of the secondary ticket market for Penn State’s home games this season. Still fairly far from the home opener, it’s supposed to be a good sense of how excited fans are about the upcoming season. As you might expect it’s not exactly rocket science, usually Michigan or Ohio State take home the “most expensive ticket” prize with the occasional upset coming from an interesting out of conference game —West Virginia/Drew Allar’s presumed debut, for example is pulling a $167 number for the lowest single ticket available on Ticketmaster.
But so far, as of July 12, it isn’t Michigan or West Virginia pulling in that big number. It’s Iowa.
For $175 [not counting fees] you can buy a single ticket for the September 23rd clash between the Nittany Lions and Hawkeyes. That’s the single most expensive home game ticket on Penn State’s schedule. Two tickets together go for $205 compared to two tickets to see Michigan for $168. Albeit a noon kick and a mid November date don’t help matters any for the Michigan game, but for a game that will sell out at the end of the day, the Wolverines aren’t the leader in the July clubhouse.
From a neutral perspective Penn State’s clash with Iowa is easily the most dramatic game of the season and probably the first since Penn State played at Illinois 2012 [a year after Illinois’ staff members came to campus to recruit players during the Sandusky scandal] that involves any degree of real life animosity between the two programs. Penn State, Michigan and Ohio State operate in some love triangle of trying to simply avoid losing to one another but for its part Penn State’s operational dislike of either program is born more of necessity and mutual respect than it is anything else. Ohio State has been too good to pretend brooding does any good and Michigan has been too good [and too weird] under Jim Harbaugh to get carried away with a war of words. So for the most part Penn State has a fairly uneventful relationship with those two programs.
But thanks to Northwestern’s ongoing turmoil, James Franklin finds himself the second-most tenured coach in the Big Ten behind Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz, the same Kirk Ferentz who accused Penn State back in 2021 of trying to slow down the Hawkeye’s [incredibly slow] offense by faking injuries and removing its best players from the field in the biggest game of the year. That particular saga was unpacked in full at the time and whether or not Penn State was or was not faking injuries, it marked really the only time in Franklin’s tenure that he has taken the bait when it comes to publicly sparring with one of his peers.
“First of all, I know a couple of (Penn State) players were legitimately hurt. I know that. I saw one sitting on the bench. I know he had an ice bag on his leg. Obviously, the quarterback (Sean Clifford) didn’t come back, so I hope those guys are well. I don’t know what their status is. Nobody wants to see anybody get hurt. Nobody. I think probably it’s a reaction to – there were a couple of guys who were down for the count and then were back a play or two later,” Ferentz said at the time. “Our fans aren’t stupid. They’re watching. They know what’s going on.”
“We don’t coach it. Haven’t really been exposed to it. But our fans thought they smelled a rat, I guess. I don’t know. So they responded the way they responded.”
How much of that sort of thing carries over for two teams full of players who weren’t around for that game remains to be seen, but nothing is more fun than the occasional reminder sports doesn’t always have to be handshakes and hugs. If nothing else it seems safe to assume Penn State fans won’t have forgotten the deluge of boos that rained down in Iowa City each time a Penn State player was hurt, nor does it seem likely that they will avoid returning the gesture with some semblance of irony if the occasion arises. These are the same people who managed to rattle a former kicker commit after all.
“I do have a little bit of a hard time with our players getting hurt,” said Franklin the time. “And the fans and the coaches and the staff booing our players. They don’t run a tempo offense [which can cause opponents more frequently to feign injuries]. It was not part of our plan.”
Will it be the best game on the schedule? There will certainly be defense and Iowa will make Allar [or whoever Penn State starts at quarterback] earn each and every completion. For that alone it’s the biggest early season test beyond the opener itself. It’s not likely to be a sexy game but games against Iowa never are. But looking back over the few opportunities James Franklin has had to make a point against a teams who have pushed his buttons – he has done so at a fairly successful rate.
It’s not for me to tell you how to spend your money, but don’t overlook this game for the ones more traditionally exciting.
