Why Purdue gets to host ABC’s Saturday Night Football (and why that’s awesome)

Ohio State’s a mainstay for Saturday Night Football. The heavyweight Buckeyes are on college football’s biggest weekly spotlight game every year, maybe even multiple times.

One factor: there weren’t many incredible options for this weekend’s 7:30 p.m. ET big show, college football’s equivalent of the NFL’s Sunday Night Football.

Maybe ESPN — who produces the game — could have angled for NC State vs. Clemson in the night slot. Disney didn’t have the option of enshrining Oregon-Washington State, the College GameDay game, on ABC because Fox has rights to that one. Michigan-Michigan State was set as an early game weeks prior, right after the Spartans had lost to a struggling Northwestern, but before they’d shocked Penn State.

But what matters is that the Boilermakers program and fans get to enjoy what ESPN is treating as its biggest game of the day, with all the bells and whistles of elite production and A-team announcers.

“Purdue has great history,” Saturday Night Football producer Bill Bonnell told SB Nation. “I was laughing with the crew this morning. I’m having ‘em pull Neil Armstrong’s landing. He obviously went to Purdue, and his movie First Man is out, so there’s a lot of interest in that. We’ll have some fun storytelling.”

The series started officially in 2006 as a mainstay on ABC, although the network’s been airing games for decades.

The 2007 team that hosted the Buckeyes in Week 5 was 5-0 at the time. They ended with an 8-5 record, a nice mark for Purdue these days. The 2013 Boilermakers that hosted Notre Dame in Week 3 ended up 1-11, though.

Those Purdue teams — in addition to bad teams like 2014’s 3-9 2014 Syracuse and 6-7 Illinois — were odd picks for one of the big national games of the week, but it has a lot to do with both what ESPN has to pick from and the opponent.

2007 Purdue faced a Buckeyes team that would later play in the national title game. The 2013 Irish didn’t finish the season so hot, but it was a rivalry game, and Notre Dame had just come off the 2012 national title game. Ohio State and Notre Dame are ratings draws regardless.

Ohio State is at the forefront of the Playoff discussion as always, but there’s a whole lotta interest in how they’ll continue to adjust to life without elite defensive end Nick Bosa, whose decision to start preparing for the draft is the dominant story of the college football week.

Beyond that, this Purdue team is not a pushover, despite being a 13.5-point underdog — that S&P+ predicts to cover — and they’re not boring, either.

Yes, they’re only 3-3, but that’s after losing their first three games by extremely close margins. Purdue fans are pumped about their chances.

They also have a coach considered a rising star. Jeff Brohm is a really good offensive coach with a penchant for quick turnarounds, like the one he’s pulled at Purdue in just two years, winning 10 of his first 19 games. That’s one more than predecessor Darrell Hazell could do in almost four full seasons.

But Brohm is still missing a Signature Win. Can his Boilermakers feed off the crowd and spring a massive upset on one of the sport’s biggest stages? His tricky offense could give Ohio State’s defense, which has really struggled with big plays, some fits.

“I kinda look at it as yes, we don’t do Purdue every year,” Saturday Night Football producer Derek Mobley told SB Nation. “But every year we do Ohio State, and every year Ohio State’s different. So, we have different players, different stars. So really the teams you see a lot, in some ways, you’re starting from scratch with those as well, and it’s always fun to go some place we haven’t been for a while, Saturday Night Football creates a lot of excitement in town. The crowd, the student section’ll be really into it.”

Purdue isn’t officially planning a crowd blackout, but some fans are planning to do it anyway— and black is one of the school’s only two colors.

“[Mobley’s] favorite thing is when we go to a school and they pronounce that they’re having a blackout game,” Bonnell said, tongue in cheek. “It doesn’t look too great from the blimp because everything’s black. A white out at Penn State is an awesome scene, but when people try to do a blackout, it kinda works in the opposite way.”

It’s subtle, but a difference all the same when you’re worried about every shot of a game beamed to millions of televisions.

“A blackout at night is not good,” Mobley said. “But Purdue could have a goldout and it would look amazing. They do the stripes where it’s black and gold. Would be cool, so I hope they’re doing something.”

The hardcore fan might not have needed all of the information written here, but Saturday Night Football isn’t geared to the hardcore fan, likely because ESPN knows those fans are going to watch anyway. The target is the neutral fan.

“We get a lot of casual fans on Saturday night, and we’re always mindful of that,” Mobley said. “Keith Jackson used to have a saying that ‘you gotta make sure the little old lady in Rock Springs can understand it.’ I always thought that was a good expression and way to keep the casual viewer in mind.”

This Saturday begins with the spotlight on Pullman for the first time ever and ends with Purdue getting to join Wazzu on the main stage. And celebrating unusual destinations, from Pullman to Rock Springs to West Lafayette, is part of what makes college football our most national sport.