The Penn State Nittany Lions open the 2025 college football season at home against Nevada. The game is the first of three non-conference games before the Nittany Lions welcome Oregon to Beaver Stadium.
Penn State will welcome the Wolf Pack, FIU and Villanova this season as the three non-conference “buy games,” where a lower level FBS team plays at a P4 school’s home venue.
Nevada and Penn State signed their agreement back on Oct. 13, 2022, and the Nittany Lions will be paying the Wolf Pack more than $ 1.5 million, according to PennLive, who acquired the information through a Freedom of Information Act request to the visiting university.
Penn State Will Pay Large Price for Home-Opener
The Nittany Lions will pay Nevada $ 1.6 million for the season-opener between the two schools. However, although it seems like a steep price, it falls in line pretty close with the normal fee associated with those games.
Last year, Penn State paid $ 1.5 million to Bowling Green and $ 1.6 million to Kent State for their games played during the non-conference schedule.
Penn State football is a 6 touchdown favorite against Nevada. But in today’s landscape of college football, games like this can be “concerning,” says James Franklin.
“You have 54 new players [at Nevada], it’s hard to really have a good understanding and feel of who you’re going… pic.twitter.com/ksOCucgSDx
— Basic Blues Nation (@BasicBlues) August 25, 2025
Penn State is ranked No. 2 in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 rankings, and is a 44.5 point favorite against Nevada. The Wolf Pack come from the Mountain West and won just three games last season.
Although Penn State should be able to coast to a week one win, some other top teams have big games on Saturday. There will three top 10 matchups this weekend, as No. 1 Texas faces No. 3 Ohio State, No. 9 LSU faces No. 4 Clemson and No. 6 Notre Dame faces No. 10 Miami.
Penn State may get a chance to start week one with an easy win, but it’ll come at the cost of $ 1.6 million.
