Do not tell me Penn State is the Big Ten orphan child
Just a few days ago, I introduced myself as a Penn State fan when discussing college football with someone I just met. His immediate response was “Oh, why did Penn State ever decide to join the Big Ten?, They have no rivals there.” Granted, I still have my doubts about playing our traditional rivals, but this was not the first response I received of a similar nature. But what shocked me was that it was 2007, 15 years of Big Ten history and tradition since our inaugural season, but people still talked as if it was 1993.
The roar of the crowd was deafening, everyone in Beaver Stadium knew this next single play has national championship season-ending ramifications. For 7 years since Penn State’s 1992 inaugural Big Ten season, the Big Ten conference defined the opposing Minnesota Golden Gophers as one of Penn State’s newly established “rivals”. To Nittany Lion fans however, the rivalry was scripted, and about as unnatural as the forward pass. Almost as if the thinking heads at the Big Ten headquarters closed their eyes and randomly pointed at two teams, Minnesota and Michigan State meant as much to Penn State as Akron and Western Michigan.
Minnesota hurried up to the line of scrimmage, and lined up for a Nystrom field goal with a few seconds left in the game. This was it, the crowd knew it, Penn State’s #2 ranking was on the line. A trip to the first title game during the BCS era was in jeopardy for Penn State’s 3rd possible championship title.
Beaver stadium elevated their crowd noise almost in desperation. They knew the odds of blocking a field goal were slim. Almost as slim as the 27-yard tipped pass completion just a play earlier. What are the odds of someone tipping a long ranged pass into the hands of a teammate?
The ball was snapped, Nystrom kicked the ball and the crowd, all 107,000+ of them stood in stunned silence. A Minnesota squad that has not had a winning season since 1990, that’s 9 years for those that are counting, had just upset the #2 squad in the nation that was in the driver’s seat for the national championship. That very same Minnesota squad that had not beaten a Top-25 team since beating #23 Syracuse in 1996.
So excuse me if I enjoyed watching Minnesota struggle the last couple of years and the firing of Glen Mason. It could have only been better if Glen Mason was weeping like a girl while he was packing his stuff into a box with security standing in the background. Call me bitter, but such emotion against another team can only be reserved for what can be described as a ‘rival’.
It has been brought up ever since Penn State made the college football landscape changing decision to defect to the Big Ten. “Penn State has no geographic and natural rivals in the Big Ten”. Minnesota and Michigan State might not be Pittsburgh or Syracuse, but give Penn State a break. They are only 15 years old in one of the oldest conferences in the country.
Rivalries are born out of the little season changing moments like in 1999, not created on paper in Indianapolis. You can’t say with a straight face that Ohio State does not consider Penn State a rival after the close calls and almost even record between the two, heck, Buckeye fans even managed to destroy a Paternoville banner last season. And isn’t that what rivalries are born out of?
Stories of rocks and statues being desecrated, or of some mascot being kidnapped are commonly retold with such passion when describing the birth of any rivalry. It is time to stop considering ourselves the lucky new kid on the Big Ten block.
Granted we were robbed in 1994, no Big Ten team has gone undefeated in the Big Ten and not earned a shot at the national championship, but consider that growing pains, Penn State has had 7 undefeated, untied seasons and only once were they given a shot at the title.
So with the 2008 season fast approaching, and along with it, our 16th season in the Big Ten conference, and another shot at the Big Ten title, lets just be thankful we are playing Minnesota and Michigan State in the Big Ten and not Pittsburgh and Syracuse in the Big East, if we were, we might as well be playing in the WAC, at least there, the competition will be a little stiffer.
Releated Posts:
- Penn State moves to 3-0, Iowa looms
- Penn State’s Wild BCS Dream Scenario
- Penn State blanks Minnesota for Homecoming win
- Great Moments in the Penn State/Ohio State Rivalry, Part 2
- Big Ten Basketball Schedule Released: Penn State Screwed Over
There are a few errors in your post.
1. PSU played for the MNC 3 times with an undefeated record, with losses to Alabama in 1978, and OU in 1985 and the win in 1986.
2. Beaver stadium didn’t expand to 107,000 until 2001.
1. Don’t forget there wasn’t really a MNC game until the advent of the Bowl Alliance / Coalition and now BCS game. When PSU played as a #1 or #2 team against an almost equally high ranked opponent prior to that, that was purely a) luck or b) backdoor matchups by the Bowls. PSU played 4 times in such games, not with an undefeated record since they lost to Alabama in 1979 and OU in 1985, but they beat Miami and Georgia for the National Championship.
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2. 107,000+ was for dramatic effect, but 104,000+ standing in stunned silence can be just as dramatic as well I guess.
I think Penn State absolutely belongs in the Big Ten. Your campus is similar to those of most Big Ten campuses and the culture of your school is also very much in line with that of the traditional Big Ten schools.
However, no matter how you slice it, Michigan and Ohio State rule that league like Duke and North Carolina rule ACC basketball and you will never be more than the Big Ten’s equivalent to NC State. I’m sorry, but that’s the truth. There’s simply no room for anyone else.
Look, you have a great following and an excellent tradition. As such, I’m sure Ohio State would love to beat you every time they play you. However, they’d kill to beat Michigan. To them you’re like playing against Michigan State or Wisconsin.
And Michigan has owned PSU but even if they were to lose a game or two to you every decade or so they too will always hold your game against them well below the Notre Dame and Michigan State games and WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY below the Ohio State game.
I still believe that Penn State belongs in the B10 and the league is better because of your presence there and Penn State is better because of its affiliation in that league. However, if you want a year-in/year-out rivalry game, rather than whining about how Michigan and OSU treat you, I think your best bet is playing Pitt every Thanksgiving weekend. Those games were awesome when I was a kid and I think you are cutting off your nose to spite your face by continuing to duck them.
If you played Pitt every year you’d get the best of both worlds; membership in one of college football’s most prestigious college football conferences and an end of the season blood game with a bitter cross state rival. Like it or not, your protests to the contrary aside, you are at best door #3.