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App State To Open 2018 Football Season at Penn State in Happy Valley, One of Nation’s Most Recognizable Programs

Oct. 31, 2014. Appalachian State University football will open the 2018 season against longtime national power Penn State, the schools announced on Thursday. The contest is scheduled for Sept. 1, 2018 at Beaver Stadium in University Park, Pa.

The matchup will be the first-ever between Appalachian State and Penn State and continues Appalachian’s trend of annually scheduling some of the nation’s most recognizable programs. The Mountaineers also have future matchups slated at Clemson (2015), Tennessee (2016) and Georgia (2017) and have traveled to LSU (2005, 2008), Michigan (2007, 2014), Florida (2010) and Virginia Tech (2011) over the past decade.

“We’re very excited to add Penn State to our football schedule for the first time,” Appalachian State interim director of athletics Rick Beasley said. “Many thanks go to Penn State athletics director Sandy Barbour, associate athletics director Rick Kaluza and head coach James Franklin for giving us the opportunity to visit Happy Valley. It will be a special day for our student-athletes, coaches and all of App Nation.”

The 12th-winningest program in NCAA Division I FBS history (734 all-time victories), Penn State will join Michigan as the only Big Ten Conference teams that Appalachian State has ever faced on the gridiron. The Mountaineers made history on Sept. 1, 2007 when they stunned No. 5 Michigan, 34-32, in Ann Arbor, Mich. to become the first NCAA Division I FCS team to ever beat a nationally ranked FBS squad. Appalachian is now in its first season as a member of the FBS Sun Belt Conference.

“This is another great non-conference matchup for our program,” Appalachian State head coach Scott Satterfield said. “We have a lot of respect for Coach Franklin and the tradition of success at Penn State and look forward to taking the Mountaineers and App Nation back to Big Ten country.”

The 2018 opener at Penn State could also attract the largest crowd to ever witness an Appalachian State game. The current attendance record for a contest involving the Mountaineers is the 109,218 that was at Michigan Stadium for App State’s upset win in 2007. The official capacity for Beaver Stadium is 106,572 (making it the second-largest stadium in the western hemisphere and the fourth-largest in the world). However, the Nittany Lions routinely draw crowds exceeding 109,000, including a stadium-record 110,753 for a win over Nebraska in 2002.

With the addition of Penn State, Appalachian State’s 2018 non-conference schedule is nearly complete. In addition to Penn State, the Mountaineers travel to Charlotte (Sept. 8) and host Southern Miss (Sept. 15) in ‘18 and need just one more non-conference home game to finish off the slate. App State’s 2015, 2016 and 2017 non-conference schedules are already complete.

APPALACHIAN STATE FOOTBALL FUTURE NON-CONFERENCE OPPONENTS
2015
Sept. 5 vs. HOWARD
Sept. 12 at Clemson
Sept. 26 at Old Dominion
Oct. 3 vs. WYOMING

2016
Sept. 3 at Tennessee
Sept. 10 vs. OLD DOMINION
Sept. 24 at Akron
Oct. 29 vs. MASSACHUSETTS

2017
Sept. 16 vs. AKRON
Sept. 23 vs. WAKE FOREST
Oct. 28 at Massachusetts
TBA at Georgia

2018 
Sept. 1 at Penn State
Sept. 8 at Charlotte
Sept. 15 vs. SOUTHERN MISS

2019
Sept. 7 vs. CHARLOTTE

2020
Sept. 12 at Wake Forest

2021
Sept. 4 at Wyoming