Aug. 20, 2012
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - For the sixth consecutive year, Dave Revsine, Gerry DiNardo and Howard Griffith are traveling across Big Ten country to bring fans a 60-minute, on-site preview show from every Big Ten campus on the Big Ten Football Preview Tour, presented by Culligan. The BTN crew is traveling more than 3,000 miles during the 15-day stretch.
Penn State's preview show will debut on Tuesday, Aug. 21 at 10 p.m. ET amongst five consecutive hours of Nittany Lion football programming on BTN. The studio crew visited Penn State's practice today.
BTN visited with head coach Bill O'Brien and defensive coordinator Ted Roof for the preview show. Several Nittany Lions also were interviewed for the preview show, including defensive tackle Jordan Hill (Steelton), linebackers Gerald Hodges (Paulsboro, N.J.) and Michael Mauti (Mandeville, La.), quarterback Matt McGloin (Scranton), cornerback Stephon Morris (Greenbelt, Md.) and fullback Michael Zordich (Youngstown, Ohio).
The Penn State Football Preview Show will debut as the centerpiece event of five consecutive hours of Nittany Lion Football programming on Tuesday. At 6 p.m., the network will air Penn State's 1984 win over Doug Flutie-led Boston College and at 8 p.m., the Nittany Lions' 1985 win over Alabama will air, followed by the debut of the Preview Show.
The Penn State Football Preview Show will re-air on BTN Wednesday at 1 a.m. and from 5-10 a.m.
Tom Dienhart, BTN.com's Senior Writer, will also be providing stories from the tour's stop at Penn State at BTN.com/tour.
BTN's preseason football coverage continues next week with two, hour-long Big Ten Football Preview shows. The first show will highlight the Legends Division on Tuesday, Aug. 28, followed by the Leaders Division Preview Show on Wednesday, Aug. 29. Both shows will debut at 8 p.m. ET with a second chance each night to watch at 11 p.m. ET.
The Big Ten Network is available to more than 80 million homes through agreements with more than 300 cable, satellite and telco providers in all 50 states and Canada. Armstrong, Blue Ridge and Adams Cable, though, do not carry the BTN in Pennsylvania and the Medina and Youngstown, Ohio areas. More than 35,000 Penn State alumni live in the communities served by the three cable providers in Pennsylvania and the Medina and Youngstown areas, in addition to thousands of more fans and current Penn State students.
Armstrong, Blue Ridge and Adams Cable customers missed more than 110 Penn State events on BTN during the 2011-12 academic year, in addition to coverage from 15 conference championships.
BTN will carry multiple Penn State football games this season, including the Oct. 20 primetime game at Iowa (8 pm ET).
About BTN: A joint venture between the Big Ten Conference and Fox Networks, BTN is the first internationally distributed network dedicated to covering one of the premier collegiate conferences in the country. With more than 800 events, all in HD, the 24/7 network is the ultimate destination for Big Ten fans and alumni across the country, allowing them to see their favorite teams, regardless of where they live. Events include football, men's and women's basketball games; dozens of Big Ten Championship events; studio shows; coaches' shows; and classic games. The network televises and streams more Olympic sporting events and women's sports than has ever been aired on any other network. Original programming highlights activities and accomplishments of some of the nation's finest universities. The groundbreaking Student U initiative provides real-world experience for students interested in careers in sports television. The network is available to more than 80 million homes across the United States and Canada, and currently has agreements with more than 300 affiliates, including AT&T U-Verse, Atlantic Broadband, Cablevision, Charter, Comcast, Cox, DirecTV, DISH Network, Insight, Mediacom, Rogers Cable (Canada), Shaw Cable and Shaw Direct (Canada), Time Warner Cable and Verizon FiOS. For additional information, go to www.BTN.com.