Friday night fight

No deep thoughts on the game tonight. Frankly, I'm not looking forward to this. Two teams Penn State can't lose to, simply because their fans are downright insufferable--Maryland and Rutgers.

Looking at the Syracuse game, Maryland went 11-of-15 on third downs. That screams. Penn State's defense better not come out flat, or this one might get away from them to the point the offense can't claw its way back. I think the game starts out well for PSU, but UMD makes a few plays, maybe takes the lead. It all comes down to whether or not Penn State can maintain its composure. Even if PSU wins, it'll probably really suck for long stretches of the game tonight. I hope I'm really wrong.

The pick: Penn State 34, Maryland 31

Coaching moves Penn State fans should care about

If you haven't been keeping up with news outside of Happy Valley, here's a quick rundown of three big coaching moves in the northeast region, and how each of them could affect Penn State next year and beyond.

Penn State Struggles on Offense, Falls to Maryland 62-39

Penn State shot 20 percent... yeah, seriously.
Twenty percent.
(Photo: GoPSUsports.com)

The Penn State offense struggled from the very beginning of the game.

Even with Maryland's sloppy and slow start where Maryland traveled four times, Penn State could only score 7 points. The entire game Penn State could not hit a shot from anywhere on the court. At one point Taran Buie took two consecutive three point attempts and both were rushed and completely off target. At halftime Penn State had on 20 points but more importantly, zero bench points. Even the final shot before half was a 3-pointer by Time Frazier that was blocked right back into his face that left a terrible taste for the entire crowd.

Penn State Looks to Make Mark in ACC/Big Ten Challenge

(Photo: UMD.edu)

Last week was full of ups and downs for the Men's Penn State Basketball team. Now Maryland is coming into town. Tonight could mean an important win for both teams as both are preparing for conference play.

As of this morning, the Big Ten is ahead of the ACC 4-2 in this early season tournament. We will find out tonight at 9:15 p.m. if Penn State can stay on track with the rest of the Big Ten.

Let's first take a look at how this prior week has prepared the Nittany Lions for this primetime matchup.

Linkbacker U gets the most bang for its buck

Adjusted for inflation, like Brutus Buckeye's head... It turns out that Penn State has a better football winning percentage than Ohio State over the last five seasons. Wait, what is that? No way. You must be lying. Nope. Brett McMurphy over at Fanhouse broke down, in rather fantastic fashion, how much dough each BCS conference team spends on its football program.

Turns out, the Nittany Lions have actually the best win percentages in the Big Ten over opponents that have spent more money (.466), and less money (.891) than Penn State. You see, that's the catch here: Ohio State isn't out-spent by anyone, and thus doesn't have any record at all against programs in that category. So there! [sticks out tongue]

School	Expenses (in millions)
1. Ohio State	$32.30
2. Iowa	$26.90
3. Wisconsin	$22.71
4. Penn State	$19.13
5. Michigan	$18.03
6. Michigan State	$15.86
7. Northwestern	$15.71
8. Purdue	$12.66
9. Indiana	$11.84
10. Illinois	$10.49
11. Minnesota	$9.25

Penn State came in fourth in the Big Ten as you can see in the chart, along with McMurphy's thoughts on his findings.

"My two cents: Looking for a reason Minnesota has only one victory against Ohio State since 1981? How about the fact Ohio State's football budget is 3½ times greater than Minnesota's. There's certainly nothing golden about the Gophers' Big Ten worst budget. Not so coincidentally, their last winning league record came in 2003. But, hey, it could be worse: they could be Indiana. The Hoosiers haven't had a winning league record since 1993. Penn State's budget ranks as only the league's fourth-highest, but the Nittany Lions' 29 league wins since 2005 are second only to Ohio State. Iowa's budget ranks third nationally, but the Hawkeyes haven't won the league title since a co-championship with Michigan in 2004. Big Ten's best bang for the buck: Penn State. Most financially irresponsible: Iowa."

So to all those folks out there complaining about rising ticket prices, you're getting the best on-field product in the entire conference, for the amount you're paying. No other team does more with the money it invests into its football program.

But that's not all. Penn State pulls in a hefty $42.63 million in football revenue per year. That's good enough for No. 1 in the Big Ten, and fourth nationally, only behind Texas, Florida, and Georgia. The Buckeyes are No. 10 nationally with $35.89 million, while Michigan is right behind at No. 11.

Maryland, My Maryland (and potential OOC opponent?)... With all the news yesterday about Syracuse, I came to wonder, "Is this going to be a theme from now on?" As in, will Penn State make a point now of scheduling higher-profile BCS teams for future non-conference schedules. Granted, Nebraska coming to the Big Ten left a big hole in the 2013-14 schedule, when the Huskers were originally set to play Penn State. But what about other teams that have been rumored to have spoken with Tim Curley?

I am actually ashamed that I missed this article way back in 2008. Maybe it was the whole Big Ten title thing going on at the time. But it seems like Penn State and Maryland were in talks for a series.

"Friedgen said he wants to play Penn State, but the schools have been unable to agree on games. He said Penn State had proposed a deal in which the Nittany Lions would get two home games to Maryland's one.

But Penn State athletics spokesman Jeff Nelson said yesterday, "We have had discussions with Maryland about playing but have not asked for a two-for-one at any time in those discussions."

One way to break a stalemate, Maryland officials said, might be to schedule a game at a neutral site. That would be a simpler negotiation than deciding how to set up a home-and-home series."

Now that Penn State has shown a willingness to schedule neutral site games, and will already have tested out FedEx Field, the idea of a series with Maryland doesn't sound so implausible.

Of course, there's the bickering factor. No one has heard a thing about this series renewal since 2008. And with both sides leaving the negotiating table in seemingly bitter fashion, this could be a dead issue. But never say never, especially now that Old Man Curley is feeling feistier these days when it comes to scheduling football opponents.

The sweetest kind of payback... CBS's Dennis Dodd never really collects my interest enough to go any deeper into his writing than a quick scan. But he does offer up an interesting Big Ten expansion conspiracy theory good enough for even a hardcore conspira-theorist. We all remember Jim Delany's tongue-in-cheek letter about how the Big Ten wouldn't sacrifice its academic standards to win football games--a clear shot across the SEC's bow. Dodd suggests conference expansion is just a big step forward in Delany's war with SEC commish Mike Slive:

"We all know that expansion is about money and market share and television, but could it have an ulterior motive? Consider the Rose Bowl's place in a world of 16-team super conferences. With an expanded Pac-10 and Big Ten, the Rose would be partners with 32 of the biggest and best football programs in the country, almost 27 percent of Division I-A. That list would include USC, Ohio State, Michigan, Texas and Oklahoma.

In that scenario, the possibility of national titles being monopolized by the Pac-10 and Big Ten suddenly goes up. The possibility of a mere 16-team SEC becoming marginalized also goes up. That's a long way to go for payback by Delany but it's worth contemplating."

Oh, that's so juicy, it's almost good enough for a Daytime Emmy nomination.

Et Cetera... Nebraska fans won't go lightly, says CN... Stewart Mandel thinks Evan Royster could, possibly, maybe make some Heisman noise in 2010... Phil Grosz updates us with all the inside info ($)... Syracuse series reactions are always fun, so check out the utter schizo-ness on the BSD comments thread... and NWO has some neat photos of inside the New Meadowlands Stadium

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Nebraska will join the Big Ten; Four more schools to follow?

The Cornhuskers will bring all those "National Championships" with them to the Big Ten. (photo: HuskersGameday.com)

It looks like this will be it, folks. Between Rivals' Chip Brown, Chicago Tribune's Teddy Greenstein, and ESPN it's become 99 percent certain (Is it possible to be "almost certain?") that the University of Nebraska will officially join the Big Ten expansion party. The problem is, no one is going on the record to confirm it.

We do know that Nebraska's board of regents will meet tomorrow. And now we know that their official agenda will include a "Resolution regarding UNL athletic conference alignment."

And a little while ago, Twitter erupted with the rumor that WFNI Indianapolis was reporting that Notre Dame, Syracuse, Rutgers & Maryland are Big Ten bound along with Nebraska. But there isn't a hard link to the story, probably because it was reported on-air. So that's something to watch.

Rutgers is growing as a serious contender for the third spot in this first wave of new additions to the Big Ten. But should Notre Dame get swayed towards the conference, we could see all five (as the radio report supposedly claimed) of those named schools jump in tow with Big Red.

This is a moving story. What you're reading right now is probably out-dated. Check back later tonight, as we may have even more movement (two in one day!) on the Big Ten Expansion Doomsday Clock!

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Poll: Who should get the Big Ten expansion invite?

With a newly "accelerated" timetable for expanding the Big Ten, let's dip back into the waters of prognostication. Tell us who you think should get an invitation to join the Big Ten? (note: if you choose "other" be sure to give us your thoughts in the comments)

When the Big Ten sends out expansion invitations, which schools would you most like to see on the list?

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Penn State to Face Maryland In 2010 Big Ten-ACC Challenge

We couldn't find a quality picture of Gary Williams sweating, so we got the next best thing (H/T Drunk Athlete).

I'm really beginning to love the city of Louisville, Kentucky. First, there were the drunken shenanigans at the Derby a couple weeks ago and now, their newspaper (The Courier-Journal) is the first to leak the entire field of this year's upcoming Big Ten-ACC Challenge. This time around, the Fighting DeChellises have themselves a date at the Jordan Center against Maryland. Yes, THAT Maryland, as in coach Gary Williams and the buckets of sweat he creates during every game. We're also talking about a Maryland team coming off a season where they tied with Duke for the ACC's regular season title.

While this year's game should no doubt be a fine challenge for Penn State early on, it unfortunately comes a year after their talented, prima-donna, showboating point guard Greivis Vasquez graduates, which means the Nittany Nation loses an easy heckling target. In total, Maryland is losing its top three scorers from last year but given the talent that is returning plus Williams' ability to recruit, don't expect the Terps to be one of those ACC teams that PSU always plays one year too late and ends up killing their RPI as a result when said ACC team finishes near the bottom of the conference.

Personally, I'm loving this matchup. Perhaps it's because I jumped on the Terps bandwagon in the early part of last decade (back when PSU was wallowing away during the final years of the Jerry Dunn era) thanks to my uncle being a professor at Maryland, and taking me to a couple of games. I still recall proudly sporting a "FEAR THE TURTLE" t-shirt in school the day after Maryland won the national title back in 2002. No worries though, that was just a phase..much like how I also had the top part of my hair dyed lighter brown back in high school (remember that craze?).

Anyway, that's enough reminiscing for now. Here's a list of the rest of the games in this year's challenge:

Indiana at Boston College
Purdue at Virginia Tech
Michigan State at Duke
Ohio State at Florida State
North Carolina at Illinois
North Carolina State at Wisconsin
Georgia Tech at Northwestern
Michigan at Clemson
Iowa at Wake Forest
Virginia at Minnesota


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