Things to watch this week in the Big 12 Conference:

Game of the week

No. 8 Penn State at West Virginia, Saturday, noon ET (Fox)

The Mountaineers, coming off a surprising 9-4 record last year after being picked to finish last in the Big 12, are the league’s only team opening against a ranked Power Four team. West Virginia has lost its past three openers, including 38-15 at Penn State last year in the first meeting since 1992 between the schools that are only about 180 miles apart. The Nittany Lions have won 35 of the last 38 meetings since the mid-1950s.

West Virginia returns its top three rushers with running backs sophomore Jaheim White (842 yards and four TDs) and junior CJ Donaldson (798 yards and 11 TDs), and dual-threat senior quarterback Garrett Greene (772 yards rushing and 13 TDs). The Mountaineers’ 229 yards rushing per game were the most for a major conference team. Penn State was the nation’s top rushing defense allowing only 75.5 yards per game.

The undercard

TCU is the only other Big 12 team opening against a major conference opponent, Friday at Stanford, in the Cardinal’s first game as an ACC member after the dismemberment of the Pac-12. TCU went 5-7 last year. Josh Hoover is the TCU starting quarterback after averaging 339 yards passing the final six games as a redshirt freshman last year.

Colorado won at TCU last year in coach Deion Sanders’ first game with the Buffaloes while still in the Pac-12, but are now back in the Big 12 after 13 seasons away. They open Thursday night at home against FCS powerhouse North Dakota State. The Buffs ended last season with a six-game losing streak, and eight losses in nine games after a 3-0 start.

Impact players

Nick Martin and Collin Oliver are returning starting linebackers for No. 17 Oklahoma State. Martin’s 140 tackles last season in his first as a starter were the most by a Cowboys player since 1984, and the most by a Big 12 player since 2018. Oliver, a defensive end his first two seasons in Stillwater, had 45 tackles, 15 1/2 tackles for loss, and four forced fumbles last season. The Cowboys host FCS national champion South Dakota State on Saturday.

Inside the numbers

No. 21 Arizona, one of the Big 12’s four newcomers, carries a seven-game winning streak into this season. West Virginia (three games) and No. 22 Kansas (two games) are the only other Big 12 teams that finished last season with consecutive wins. … Oklahoma State’s Ollie Gordon II, the nation’s leading rusher last season, is one of eight returning Big 12 running backs that rushed for at least 1,000 yards last season, the most for any conference. … Eleven of the 16 openers in the Big 12 are against FCS teams.

From Year 1 to 2 decades

Two Big 12 teams have new coaches: Willie Fritz at Houston and Arizona’s Brent Brennan. There are also two coaches going into their 20th seasons, Kyle Whittingham for 12th-ranked and league newcomer Utah, and Mike Gundy at Oklahoma State. The only longer-tenured FBS coach is Kirk Ferentz, going into his 25th season at Iowa.

As Penn State coach James Franklin noted this week, tickets for Saturday’s Penn State-West Virginia game are in-demand.

“From what I understand, like, you can’t get ticket,” Franklin said. “You can’t find a ticket to this game.”

Well, you can, but they’re pricey. West Virginia announced Tuesday that the game officially is sold out, so fans looking for last-minute Penn State football tickets on the secondary market must be ready for some markup. According to Vivid Seats, the Penn State-West Virginia game is the most expensive ticket on the secondary market for college football’s Week 1. As of Wednesday afternoon, the lowest-priced ticket for the game was $193, according to Vivid Seats. That tops the price list for Week 1’s premium games.

For example, tickets for Saturday night’s game in College Station, Texas, between No. 7 Notre Dame and No. 20 Texas A&M started at $180 as of Wednesday afternoon. Tickets for No. 19 Miami’s visit to Florida started at $149, according to Vivid Seats.

Tickets for Saturday’s game between No. 1 Georgia and No. 14 Clemson, which kicks off from Atlanta at the same time as Penn State-West Virginia, started at $90. And tickets for the Sunday-night game between USC and LSU in Las Vegas opened at $117, according to Vivid Seats. Prices, of course, fluctuate constantly.

StubHub expects Penn State to be one of the premium programs on the secondary market this season. According to the site, Penn State ranks 10th among college football’s most in-demand teams for 2024. And UCLA’s Oct. 5 trip to Penn State ranked fifth among the best-selling new conference games.

Penn State is making its first trip to Morgantown since 1992, so West Virginia knew it had a hot ticket for the opener. West Virginia excluded the Penn State game from its single-game ticket inventory, which meant fans had to buy season tickets or one of three mini-plans. This week, West Virginia announced that season-ticket plans were sold out as well as the Penn State game.

“I think the Penn State game is huge for us,” West Virginia coach Neal Brown said. “That’s a regional rivalry. … It’s not a rivalry that’s gone in West Virginia’s favor very often, so that’s a great opportunity for us. It’s Fox [Big] Noon Kickoff. All their Big Noon show will be there. We’re fired up about that. Our fans will be ready for that, too. I think we’ll show really well on national television. But it’s not just a big game for West Virginia. It’s a big game for our league and it’s an opportunity for our league and this new Big 12 without a couple schools that have been a part of the Big 12 for a long time in that first weekend on a marquee stage to show what kind of football that we play in this league.”

Kickoff for Saturday’s Penn State-West Virginia game is scheduled for noon ET, as Brown said, on FOX.

More Penn State Football

COLUMN: Penn State’s long 2024 road brings no shortage of drama

Penn State OC Andy Kotelnicki faces familiar opponent in Nittany Lions debut

How James Franklin is preparing Penn State for a “challenging” trip to West Virginia

Penn State on SI is the place for Penn State news, opinion and perspective on the SI.com network. Publisher Mark Wogenrich has covered Penn State for more than 20 years, tracking three coaching staffs, three Big Ten titles and a catalog of great stories. Follow him on X (or Twitter) @MarkWogenrich.

While respiratory illnesses like the flu typically trend higher in the winter months, COVID-19 is not totally seasonal. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate high or very high levels of COVID nationwide this summer. But with new vaccines expected to be available next month and the winter months on the horizon, medical professionals in Virginia suggest people get their shots sooner rather than later. 

“COVID mutates quicker than the flu,” said Heather Harmon-Sloan with Virginia’s Department of Health. “This makes it incredibly important to get the updated COVID-19 vaccine that will be coming out here shortly.”

This is because the newer vaccines — approved last week and expected in September —  will be more effective at guarding against the latest variants of the virus. The new Pfizer and Moderna vaccines will target the specific strain of the virus that has been attributed to spikes in infections this past spring and summer. 

Over 3% of emergency room visitors each week for the past three weeks in Virginia have been diagnosed with COVID-19, a number that has been rising over the summer. And while not every case may lead to an emergency room visit, wastewater surveillance to detect the presence of COVID indicates high levels around the country. Virginia’s latest surveillance shows mostly a plateau around the state with an increase in the Eastern Shore. 

“What we’re seeing right now is higher than what we saw this time last year,” Harmon-Sloan said. 

She also attributes some of the spikes in cases and emergency visits to the inclination to spend more time indoors amid the summer heat — not unlike how indoor gatherings in the winter contribute to infection spikes. 

“Respiratory viruses tend to be able to spread more efficiently when we’re all indoors, especially if we have poor ventilation,” she said. 

This is where opening windows, practicing social distancing and mask use can help reduce infection potential, Harmon-Sloan said. 

And while the new vaccines should target the same variant that has been driving the summer wave, Harmon-Sloan said that anyone who was infected this summer could consider delaying the new vaccine for about three months. 

This is because those people may have a temporary resistance to the strain having just recovered from it, but she still suggests that people speak with their doctors if they’re weighing when they should get their newest shots. 

“People overall should get the new vaccine — even if they were vaccinated or were sick with COVID 19 earlier this year,” she said. The vaccine that’s emerging “is going to better target those particular variants that are new, that are in circulation right now in our communities, and the cause for these high trends.”

The CDC will be launching a vaccine locator through the vaccines.gov website. Additionally, President Joe Biden’s administration announced last week that it will once again offer free at-home COVID test kits that people can receive by mail. They can be ordered through covidtest.gov.