For the first time this season, the Virginia Tech men’s basketball team will play away from Cassell Coliseum. The Hokies will travel to Baltimore to play Penn State in the Hall of Fame Series. After three wins against mid-major programs, Delaware State, USC Upstate, and Winthrop, this is the first power conference game for Mike Young’s team.
Watching the game will not be easy for a lot of Virginia Tech as the game will be streamed behind a paywall. The first three games were on AAC Network Extra, but to watch this game, you might need to pony up some dough.
Virginia Tech vs. Penn State will stream on Peacock
To watch this game, you’ll need to turn into Peacock, an NBC streaming service. Sticking this game behind a paywall is NBC saying, “If you want to watch, pay us.’’ This was a plan from the network’s steaming service to put it paywall to get more customers. That is asking fans a lot on a Friday night, to pay up to watch the Hokies and Nittany Lions.
Is a sign of things to come when it comes to watching sports? Sadly, it likely is. ESPN started it with ESPN+ and now to watch Thursday night NFL football, you need Amazon Prime. NBC has a contract with the Big Ten, so this is nothing new to Penn State fans, who have to deal with their National Championship contending football team streaming on Peacock for some games.
This is the first real test for Young’s team, a road game, albeit at a neutral site, against a power conference team from the Big Ten. Regardless of where the two teams were picked in their respective preseason polls, to watch this early season matchup, you need to pay up which is the current state of sports we’re in in 2024.