And so begins the interminable Big 11 offseason

Degenerate · Post by **Degenerate** » Thu Nov 22, 2007 2:54 pm

Terry in Crapchester wrote:
PSUFAN wrote:There are a lot of PSU fans that think our woes started when we joined the Big 10. Fromk a football perspective, I find Big 10 games to be much more compelling than the teams we used to play, top to bottom. From every other University perspective, the match was made in heaven.
Joining the Big Ten doesn't seem to have done you many favors in basketball. And maybe it's just me, but the land-grant "rivalry" with Michigan State seems just a tad contrived.

Right, PSU's status as a basketball power went out the window when they joined the B10.

Since they joined the league, they've made a Sweet 16 and have made the tourney in one or two other years. That's still a step up from the abyss pre-'93 when most people didn't know they had a team.

PSUFAN · Post by **PSUFAN** » Thu Nov 22, 2007 3:54 pm

I'm not expecting that joining a conference should accord a program any particular favors or status per se, those things have to be earned by the AD and the staff. PSU has struggled to build their hoops program. The focus here has been football. Nonetheless, I don't witness that and look askance at the Big 10. It is on PSU to build that up, not the fault of the conference if we have failed.

Yes, PSU's natural rivalries have been severed, but I am glad to see them replaced with new rivalries with Big 10 teams. I do miss the Pitt rivalry, but the conference is not out there saying, "don't play Pitt".

Back to the thread topic, I wish that this weekend involved Big 10 teams. For everyone else, this is a huge weekend.

Degenerate · Post by **Degenerate** » Thu Nov 22, 2007 4:39 pm

Who made up the old PSU schedule? I remember:

Boston College
Syracuse
West Virginia in some years (most?)
Notre Dame
Maryland (poor Terps never could beat the Lions)
Pitt at the end of the season

Shine · Post by **Shine** » Fri Nov 23, 2007 2:46 am

WolverineSteve wrote:You can't whack NW (worst athletic program) because they raise the academic curve.

Bullshit. Conference affiliation has very little to do with academics and it's not like the rest of the schools are lacking in academic credentials. Not to mention that NW is the only "out of profile" school in that they're a private school and the other 10 are public schools. I've felt for a long time that NW shouldn't be in the conference, looking past the fact I felt PSU should have never been invited to join. I'm a MUCH bigger fan of shrinking to 10 versus growing to 12, and NW is the best choice to extricate from the mix.

Terry in Crapchester · Sat Nov 24, 2007 7:14 am

PSUFAN wrote:Yes, PSU's natural rivalries have been severed, but I am glad to see them replaced with new rivalries with Big 10 teams.

My point earlier was that I don't see any "new rivalries" in the Big Ten for Penn State. Sparty is not a rival for Penn State, notwithstanding the Big Ten's efforts to make that a rivalry. tOSU does have rivalry potential for Penn State, as long as Penn State fan is okay with playing second fiddle to Michigan as a rival in the heart and mind of tOSU fan.

Back to the thread topic, . . .

Since you mentioned it, here's an interesting topic: did the early end to the Big Ten season cost the conference an at-large BCS bid?

Illinois is in the best shape, currently ranked #17 in the BCS rankings. They need to be in the Top 14 to be considered for an at-large bid. Being idle for the next two weeks, their only real hope to move up is for a team ahead of them to lose. Texas losing earlier today was a help. Va Tech winning the ACC (and knocking off Virginia and Fredo in the process) also would help. The problem is, those games would have a similar cause-effect for Hawaii if Hawaii beats Washington, and Hawaii could very well wind up in the Top 12 and therefore earn an automatic bid.

So, assuming that Illinois can finish in the Top 14 (not a guarantee by any stretch of the imagination), they still need either a Hawaii loss, or to beat out either the Big XII, Pac-10 or the Meatgrinder for one of the remaining at-large bids. Their best chance at the latter would be tOSU reaching the BCS championship game, which is still a possibility, although it probably means a loss from either the Kansas-Missouri winner or West Virginia. In West Virginia's case, that would probably mean a loss to Pitt. A West Virginia loss to UConn could be counter-productive, in that it would give UConn the Big East's automatic bid, and might not drop West Virginia far enough to knock them out of contention for an at-large BCS bid.

I'm sure IllinoisFan probably would rather have one or two games left, rather than just have to play the waiting game and hope the dominos fall in a favorable manner.