Congratulations to the Penn State Nittany Lions for winning a record 28th Lambert Meadowlands Trophy presented by the ECAC. For those unfamiliar with the award, the Lambert Meadowlands Trophy is awarded annually since 1936 to the best Division I-A team in the East.

To qualify for the award,

a school must be located in the East or play half its schedule against eligible Lambert teams. The territory includes New York, New Jersey, New England and Pennsylvania, while teams in the bordering states of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia and the District of Columbia qualify if half their schedule features eligible teams. While they were members of the Big East Conference, Virginia Tech and Miami of Florida were also eligible. Current Big East members Cincinnati, Louisville and South Florida are now eligible.

Since its creation in 1936, 16 different squads have been honored with the distinction, but none have come close to the 28 awarded to the Nittany Lions.

Oh wait, silly me. I almost ended the post there. How could I forget my obligatory Pitt jab?

So to re-clarify for those who commonly struggle to follow the process of an argument. The Lambert Meadowlands Trophy is awarded to the team the ECAC determines is best in the East for that particular year.

East, defined by the ECAC as “a school must be located in the East or play half its schedule against eligible Lambert teams. The territory includes New York, New Jersey, New England and Pennsylvania, while teams in the bordering states of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia and the District of Columbia qualify if half their schedule features eligible teams. While they were members of the Big East Conference, Virginia Tech and Miami of Florida were also eligible. Current Big East members Cincinnati, Louisville and South Florida are now eligible.”

Still with me Pitt fans? So here we go, much slower for you Panther folk. Penn State – and – Pitt – both – qualify. Penn State wins award given to best team in the East. Penn State is better than Pitt. That was never in question if you asked me, but it is now an official consensus among the ECAC. Actually, if you want to get into specifics, Penn State beat out Cincinnati who was second who beat out Pitt. So that makes Penn State AND Cincinnati better than Pitt.

But hey what do voters know. It’s not like we use them in determining our national champion or anything.

This must be quite humbling for the Big East when the ECAC decides a team with 2 conference losses in the Big Ten is more deserving than an undefeated Big East squad. But after that face plant against the SEC on national television, who could blame them. If not for the ACC, the Big East could really be sweating out the next BCS conference reevaluation in the coming years for automatic bids.