Penn State players warm up in Beaver Stadium during an NCAA game against Ohio State in State College on Saturday, Oct. 31, 2020.
                                 AP file photo

Penn State players warm up in Beaver Stadium during an NCAA game against Ohio State in State College on Saturday, Oct. 31, 2020.

AP file photo

Tired of ads? Subscribers enjoy a distraction-free reading experience.
Click here to subscribe today or Login.

June arrived on Tuesday, and Penn State took it’s biggest step toward normalcy in nearly 15 months.

Midnight signaled the return of in-person recruiting and campus visits across the country. By the afternoon, the Nittany Lions announced that Beaver Stadium will be open for full capacity for the fall.

The NCAA lifted recruiting restrictions that had been in place since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the sport in March 2020. The attendance announcement coincided with Gov. Tom Wolf officially lifting limits on gatherings across the state.

It also means that all Penn State sports will be back to full attendance for the 2021-22 school year and all of the regular routines at football games — tailgating, greeting the team’s arrival and traffic patterns — will return to pre-pandemic patterns.

Football season ticket holders will be notified by email beginning June 8 details about paying for their tickets and seat contributions.

“We are excited to welcome our 107K strong back in Beaver Stadium and full capacity at our other athletics venues this fall with the adjustments in university, local, state and CDC guidance,” athletic director Sandy Barbour said through the school. “Our fans are a true home field advantage for all of our teams and the 2020-21 season was not the same without them in our venues.

“We are so appreciative of the tremendous support of our donors and fans, especially during these challenging times, to allow us to continue to provide our more than 800 students-athletes with the conditions they need for success.”

Fans will not be required to be vaccinated to attend games, though the university “continues to encourage all those who are able, to get vaccinated” to protect the health of others.

Unvaccinated fans will be required to wear masks inside university buildings at all times after June 28.

The Lions are looking forward to getting fans back in the stadium after 2020’s sterile environment that allowed only family members of players and staffers from attending. Penn State lost their first three home games last fall to Ohio State, Maryland and Iowa as part of a program-worst 0-5 start.

Penn State finished 2-3 at home, beating Michigan State and Illinois in back-to-back weeks in December.

The 2021 home slate opens on Sept. 11 against reigning MAC champion Ball State (3:30 p.m., FS1) and is followed by a marquee primetime matchup against SEC power Auburn on Sept. 18 (7:30 p.m., ABC).

It’s the start of a four-game homestand followed by visits from FCS Villanova (Sept. 25) and Indiana (Oct. 2). The Lions will also host Illinois (Oct. 23, noon), Michigan (Nov. 13) and Rutgers (Nov. 20).

Lions coach James Franklin spoke to fans via video call on Tuesday evening as part of Penn State’s virtual Coaches Caravan event. He said he hopes the changes on offense under new coordinator Mike Yurcich can have a similar impact to Joe Moorhead’s arrival back in 2016.

“(The scheme is) gonna probably be very similar to what we did when we won the Big Ten championship,” Franklin said. “Gonna be spread. Gonna be explosive.”

One difference, as already shown during spring ball, is that the Lions will no longer operate exclusively out of the shotgun, as they had since that 2016 campaign.

“We will mix going under center a little bit,” Franklin said. “… Not a big part, but it’ll be part of what we do.”