Good Friends & Good Times from the Heart of Happy Valley

The Obligatory PSU Pregame Show presented by HappyValley.com will return this Fall for its 6th season as James Franklin and Penn State football gear up for 2021!

Watch the episodes from our Fall 2020 season on Facebook

Thanks again to our key cable affiliate partners Eleven Sports, NESN National, and MASN. 

Check back soon for more info on our Fall 2021 season!

Until then, enjoy weekly nonsense with occasional insights about Penn State, life in Happy Valley, and more on The Obligatory PSU Podcast — A Penn State podcast about Penn State (sort of). Trust us, you could definitely do worse.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google | Spotify | Amazon | Android

SUMMER '21 Episode 1: College Football Playoff Expansion Pt. 1 – The Obligatory PSU Podcast

Few teams have been more consistently cheated of the chance to prove their worthiness as title contenders on the field than the Penn State Nittany Lions. Joe Paterno famously coached four teams that went undefeated and uncrowned, and as he was for so many of college football's eventual innovations, Joe was an outspoken advocate for a playoff system to determine a champion. After years of hearing it would never happen, an actual four-team playoff still left the 2016 Big Ten Champion Nittany Lions on the outside looking in. So news that the college playoffs are set to expand to include 12 teams in the near future should be welcome in Happy Valley, where the home team would have made a 12-team field in four of the last seven years. But might moving from four top contenders to 12 teams overall prove "too much of a good thing?" That's the question we tackle as we begin our examination of the college football playoff's inevitable expansion.12-Team Playoff Brackets (2014-20): https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/college-football-playoff-expansion-how-a-12-team-field-would-have-looked-in-each-of-last-seven-seasons/HOSTED BY: Brandon Noble, Mike Herr, Kevin Horne, Chris BuchignaniSupport Our Great Sponsors:Sign up for a free 30-day trial of Audible: audibletrial.com/ObligatoryPSUHappy Valley Adventure Bureau: HappyValley.comCentral PA Tasting Trail: CentralPATastingTrail.com
  1. SUMMER '21 Episode 1: College Football Playoff Expansion Pt. 1
  2. SPRING '21 Episode 24: Two White Outs Twice As Nice?
  3. SPRING '21 Episode 23: Penn State Letterman Lydell Sargeant
  4. SPRING '21 Episode 22: The Award Winner & The Hiking Viking
  5. SPRING '21 Episode 21: Penn State NFL Draft Wrap-up w/ Sheil Kapadia
The+Obligatory+PSU+PreGame+Show

Each Fall, Nittany Lions fans start their Saturdays with another season of “The Obligatory PSU Pregame Show,” a TV “tailgate” full of the fun, camaraderie, and passion – from joy to heartbreak and back again – that makes Penn State football the healthy obsession of students, alumni, and fans across the country. For every loyal Nittany Lion who can’t be there in person, it’s the next best thing: A weekly dose of Happy Valley to kick off the football weekend.

Starring PSU postal icon, Mike “the Mailman” Herr, every Penn Stater’s favorite and most beloved mailman; Brandon Noble, former defensive tackle for Penn State, the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Redskins; Chris Buchignani, the founding president of The Nittany Valley Society; and Kevin Horne, proud holder of three Penn State degrees and former managing editor of Onward State. Giving you the next-best tailgating experience, no matter how far you are from Dear Old State. They’re the most unlikely and lovable bunch of dudes in football pregame show history.