Penn State football’s whiteout widely considered nation’s best atmosphere

No. 7 Penn State football  is set to host No. 16 Michigan on Saturday in front of a whiteout crowd. College GameDay is coming to Happy Valley for the showdown.

This weekend, College GameDay will be returning to Penn State for the third straight season. This is the eighth time GameDay has come to Penn State. ESPN’s Chris Fowler, Rece Davis, and Kirk Herbstreit have all made it clear they believe Penn State’s annual whiteout game is the best atmosphere in college football.

Fowler grew up in State College because his father was a professor at Penn State. It’s the reason he fell in love with college football. He discussed how he remembered when Penn State crowd’s were known to be more conservative.

Note: All quotes from The Daily Collegian.

"“The whiteout has caused the Penn State atmosphere to make a 180. Penn State gameday is as good as it gets. It’s definitely the best north of the Mason-Dixon line.”"

Davis has traveled all across the country, but he stated that Penn State’s whiteout remains one of the most memorable atmospheres he’s ever had the pleasure to broadcast a game in. He had the following to say regarding Penn State’s annual whiteout game.

"“It’s one of the best spectacles in college football. Everybody does some “color out,” all across the country. For whatever reason, it’s different here. I don’t know if it’s the lighting in the stadium, if it’s the fact that you have very, very few who don’t cooperate and don’t participate. It is cool to walk in the stadium and see everybody in white and they’re playing ‘Zombie Nation’ or whatever song they play. They have a great playlist, by the way, to go with the White Out. I think it’s one of the coolest experiences. It’s what separates college football from other sports.”"

Herbstreit is known to love the Penn State whiteout. Several years ago when GameDay was in Happy Valley, he called Penn State’s student section “the best in the country”. This time around, Herbstreit had more great things to say about Penn State fans.

"“For me, the best atmosphere in college football is Saturday night at the White Out. I was here in ‘05, and I think it was just the students, then, doing the White Out. It was ‘07, I think, when the whole stadium started to do it, and now we keep coming back.It’s something about, not just the noise, but the energy and the pride that’s within that stadium that night. The way they sing along, like every person singing ‘Sweet Caroline,’ I don’t know, it just feels like family, it feels like community, it feels like the fans have their teams back, more so than any other situation or stadium I’ve been in.A true test of that is when things go bad, the crowd gets even louder. Instead of getting quieter, they get louder and try to pull their team home to a victory. What I’ve seen when I come here is the visiting team gets blown out early. They get out of their game early because they can’t hear, there’s a false start, there’s a holding call, next thing you know, Penn State scores. Now you’re in a hole, 7-0, and it just keeps spiraling.And so if I were Michigan, I would say, ‘Hey, first quarter, we’re going to attack, we’re going to fight this, we’re not going to ease our way in. Let’s challenge ourselves against this intensity that this crowd brings.’ Otherwise, if you get down 7-0, 10-0, it’s really going to be tough to dig yourself out of that hole because of the energy in that stadium.”"

It’s no secret that Penn State fans are some of the best in the country, but now the national media is publicly taking more notice than ever before. College GameDay will take place from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET on the Hub Lawn in University Park.