USC vs. Penn State kickoff time announced for October 12

October 12 will be one of the best college football Saturdays of the year. One of the marquee games that day will be USC hosting Penn State.

Monday, it was announced that CBS will televise that contest as its featured "Big Ten on CBS" game. Thus, kickoff will be at 12:30 p.m. Pacific.

This is the same television window in which this past weekend's 38-21 win over Wisconsin was televised. Hopefully, the outcome against the Nittany Lions will be similar for the Trojans.

It is the third time that USC has been in the 12:30 p.m. Pacific window and the second time that the Trojans will be the featured Big Ten game on CBS. That also means that the broadcast crew of Brad Nessler, Gary Danielson, and Jenny Dell will be on the call for what should be an exciting game between two traditional powers in college football.

USC currently sits at No. 11 in the Associated Press Top 25 thanks to a 3-1 start to the year. This week, the Trojans must take care of business on the road at Minnesota before turning their attention to the Nittany Lions. That will be a sneaky-tough game for USC considering that the Golden Gophers put a scare into Michigan in Ann Arbor this past weekend before falling 27-24, the same final score that USC had when the Trojans fell to the Wolverines on the road in the third game of the season.

As for Penn State, they check in at No. 7 in the A.P. poll this week following a nice 21-7 home victory over Illinois in week five. Sitting at 4-0 on the season and 1-0 in Big Ten play, the Nittany Lions have a home game against lowly UCLA this weekend before they embark on their cross-country trip to face USC.

Other intriguing games set for October 12 include No. 3 Ohio State at No. 6 Oregon, No. 2 Texas vs. No. 19 Oklahoma, No. 12 Ole Miss at No. 13 LSU, and No. 20 Kansas State at Colorado. However, USC fans will have their attention turned to the Coliseum where two blue-blood programs will be squaring off.

It will be one of the biggest games in the recent history of the Coliseum and one that will go a long way towards determining the Big Ten regular-season race. Thus, it is no surprise that CBS has picked that matchup as its showcase game on what will be one of the biggest weekends of the regular season.