That's right, at Hoops Madness tonight, the Men's basketball team introduced new, alternate jerseys that are grey (or gray if you prefer that spelling).

via www.collegiatestadiums.com

via www.collegiatestadiums.com

I know this is going to create a lot of "I like them" or "I hate them" comments, but you all wanted change in the program and uniforms are a part of that these days. Hope you all remember that when we get a new football coach.

via www.collegiatestadiums.com

I am trying to get in contact with the person/group who is responsible for these buttons.

Information can be either on or off record, I am just hoping for some background information on the idea, distribution methods, reaction by people who have seen them, etc.

I have contacted Jeff Nelson for an official stance from the University, but as usual, I got no response.

Thanks for any help and sorry Kyle, Eric and the rest of the BSD guys if I cause a controversy.

This is something that I wrote for my site, but more people come to BSD so here it is.

While most of the country was focusing on Clemson getting worked by Georgia Tech and USC battling Stanford despite some terrible officiating, I noticed quite a few Penn State fans openly cheering for Ohio State to beat Wisconsin.

The reasoning seemed simple, if Ohio State beat Wisconsin, Penn State would have a two game lead in the Leaders division of the Big Ten. However, I’m going to explain why a two game lead makes Penn State’s path to the Big Ten Championship game harder.

I know, you are probably wondering how a one game lead can be better than a two game lead but I am going to do my best to explain how it is possible.

First, let’s look at the current standings after Ohio State did in fact beat Wisconsin:

Now, let’s look at Penn State’s remaining schedule:

Also, let’s look at the Big Ten tie-breaker situation if there is a three team tie:

So for this exercise we will make an assumption that Ohio State and Wisconsin win all of their remaining games except for their respective games against Penn State.

If you are not aware of which teams Ohio State and Wisconsin have left to play outside of Penn State, well here you go:

Ohio State:

Wisconsin:

Looking at those schedules I think that it is a very reasonable guess that Wisconsin will win out till the Penn State game and the only other real test for Ohio State will be its game against Michigan.

Alright, now that we have the background knowledge out of the way, let’s get to the fun part:

If Wisconsin had beaten Ohio State:

This one is easy. Penn State would have had a one game lead on Wisconsin and a three game lead on Ohio State. This would have meant that all Penn State had to do was beat Wisconsin. They could have lost to both Nebraska and Ohio State, which would make them 5-2 in the Big Ten leading to the Wisconsin game, who would have been 6-1. By beating Wisconsin, the two teams would tie for the division and Penn State would win the tie-breaker and the division.

That’s it, simple as that, all that would have mattered was the game against Wisconsin.

Now, on to the actual situation at hand and the possible outcomes:

Penn State beats Nebraska, loses to Ohio State and Wisconsin:

In this situation, Penn State would finish third in the division, Wisconsin second and Ohio State would play in the title game. While all three teams would have the Big Ten record, Penn State is the first to be eliminated by tie-breaker b1 because they would have lost to both Ohio State and Wisconsin. Then it reverts to the head-to-head matchup between Ohio State and Wisconsin, which Ohio State won, giving the Buckeyes the division.

Penn State beats Ohio State, loses to Nebraska and Wisconsin:

Here Ohio State would be eliminated by having a third Big Ten loss. Unfortunately for Penn State they would finish tied with Wisconsin with two Big Ten losses and they would lose the tie-breaker do to losing head-to-head.

Penn State beats Wisconsin, loses to Nebraska and Ohio State:

Basically the same as the above situation just with Ohio State and Wisconsin reversed. Wisconsin is eliminated with what would be their third conference loss and Ohio State wins the tie-breaker over Penn State by winning head-to-head.

Conclusion:

That’s right, by having a larger division lead, Penn State is now in a situation where the only way to win the division now is to win two of the three remaining games instead of just one game without that one win being against Ohio State and getting some help from Michigan.

Next time I hope fans take a moment to look at the whole standings and schedule situation before worrying about how big a division lead is half way through the conference race.

I don't want to be a jerk and just pimp my blog on here so I'll copy and paste my take and experience from the taping of the upcoming ESPN special on Joe Paterno and Mike Krzyzewski.

Link for the free program card they gave us: Program Card

On June 30th, ESPN will be airing a Special called Difference Makers: Life Lessons with Joe Paterno and Mike Krzyzewski. I was fortunate enough to get a ticket to the taping of the event this morning, then got real lucky to find an employee who would take my shift just a few minutes before the event was scheduled to start. I was able to get to Eisenhower Auditorium with one minute to spare by sprinting my “big boned” frame across the Penn State campus in the 86 degree heat in my work clothes. Thankfully I had time to cool off and catch my breath since ESPN started the event almost 30 minutes late.

My seats for the first few segments they taped were in the next to last row, right by the ESPN production team. I’ve never been in a production truck, so maybe they are all like it was today, but all I can is they had more than a few miscommunications that resulted in some yelling matches and one re-taping of the Rece Davis intro. The other thing that took a segment or two to get used to was the fact they things were taped out of order of how they will be shown during the TV version.

The first four segments they taped were with Joe Paterno and Mike Krzyzewski. While the segments will be split up in a different order for the show, they were done consecutively with approximately five minute breaks inbetween. The breaks would have been shorter, but we had to wait for everyone to get back to their seats. Thankfully I have been blessed with a normally working bladder, which resulted in a nice seat upgrade for the last two taped segments.

The intro was short, with Rece noting how today was actually the first time that Paterno and Krzyzewski had ever met, and that their programs show “everything that is right” in collegiate athletics.

Each segment with the coaches began with Davis asking each coach a few questions about the segment topic, followed by a question or two from either an audience member or a Duke University member via video conference. The topics of the four segments taped by the coaches in order were teaching, family, leadership and excellence.

Before I get into some of the statements from the coaches, I’m sure the Penn State readers want to know what Paterno was like, as quite frankly there is a reason why Paterno has cut down on his public appearances. Paterno was in an excellent mood, cracking jokes the entire show and was as lively as I have seen in about 18 months. The only time Davis had to repeat anything to Paterno was during the audience question segments and Davis really only cut Paterno off from one of his typical, long, off-tangent stories once. To be honest, I’m sure when the show airs that those who don’t follow Paterno and know his ways are going to have twitter buzzing on the 30th with comments about Paterno’s age and senility, but all I can say is the comments will be off base and uninformed, except when people point out that Paterno says Penn State went 9-7 last season. 

As for quotes from the coaches, since I was not on a credential, I don’t know how much I can get away with while avoiding a cease-and-desist order from ESPN so I’ll just add in a few quick quotes that stuck out to me, slightly paraphrased to try and avoid a need to hire a lawyer.

———-

During the segment on teaching, Krzyzewski said that you have to change how you teach, but never change the values that you teach.

During the family segment, Paterno said that to make players feel at home in the Penn State football family, the tries to see what people lacked in their upbringing, then add his 2-cents to fill the void.

Coach Krzyzewski talked about how his entire family is involved with the basketball program, so it is a family job, not just his job thrown on the entire family. He said that while his daughters were growing up, he never had basketball pictures or trophies in the house, only family photos. Krzyzewski also added that his daughters have never told him that he loved basketball more than them, which is important to him.

During the leadership segment, Paterno said that good leaders how to show interest in the people they are leading. He also added that leaders have to be open-minded, flexible and understand the other people in the room. Krzyzewski added that good leaders have to find their own way of leading, and that they have to be able to answer two key questions; who are you leading and why are you leading.

An audience member asked a question to both coaches asking about their greatest moment of adversity, to which Krzyzewski answered “any practice with Coach Knight.”

When asked a question about NCAA compliance, Paterno admitted to breaking a secondary rule the other day by watching a few minutes of off-season summer workouts. Krzyzewski said that if he could change anything about the NCAA, it would be to make them modern. He went on to say that there are too many people in compliance and that it is an indictment on the system.

———-

At this point, the segments with the coaches were done being taped and the production staff wanted to fill some of the front seats that were vacated by Paterno family members, so five of us from the back were moved to the front for the taping of the two segments with former players. People have always said that the Paterno family is large, but I never realized exactly how big until I seated in the middle of them all, I think in the seat that belonged to Jay Paterno’s wife Kelley.

The two segments with former players were short, with each player taking just one question during each segment. I really liked the answers offered by former Duke player Jay Williams, although I didn’t take notes during these two segments since I was in an area where the cameras could catch me. Michael Robinson managed to get a plug in for his new webshow and Matt Millen and Jay Bilas were in their typical talking-head modes.

Overall I enjoyed the experience despite the drawn out breaks and extra stuff that had to be done to put out a better TV version. I really enjoyed listening to the coaches and only wished that each segment could have been longer.

ESPN is running a facebook based contest called Fanwiches. Restaurants or users submit sports themed sandwiches for the contest and the entry with the most votes wins a trip to Bristol, CT. As a huge sports fan who owns a restaurant with all the sandwiches named after Penn State athletes, coaches, professors, presidents, etc, this is something I would really like to win.

Our entry is The Ultimate Hero - Adam Taliaferro. It is an actual sandwich from our restaurants menu in State College.

Please click on the link and give us a vote.

  http://bit.ly/mAGJPt


As with my stadium reviews that you all comment on for me, thanks for your time.

May or may not be what you want to hear but Musselman for the Post Gazette is reporting that sources have confirmed that McGloin will be the starter saturday.

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I've been a member here at BSD for years now. I remember selling Mike a ticket in 2007 so it has to be over 3 years now and I think I was here a while before that. I have seen lots of conversations about what to do when you visit towns for an away game, what the fans are like and where to park and tailgate. Those posts are something I always check out because I love visiting different stadiums. After going to the UCF @ Marshall game the other night, I've been to 34 different college stadiums counting various bowl locations.

For Penn State, I've been to every home game since 1997 when I started school as a freshman, save some in 2002 and 2003 when I lived in Baltimore and was low man at work and couldn't come. Thankfully I kept making my donations and when I moved up at work in 2004 I also had enough points to get some nosebleed season seats.

So, between my love for the live game day experience and my familiarity with Beaver Stadium, I met some guys who run a website that does stadium reviews. They asked me to do a review of Beaver Stadium and quite frankly it was very hard for me to do. I didn't want to be a "homer" so then I got afraid I was going to go too extreme and be too hard on the game day experience here. Hopefully I came across as pretty fair but I am open to thoughts and criticism. I'll post the link just in case anyone cares to check it out.

http://www.stadiumjourney.com/stadiums/beaver-stadium-s386/

PS, I also did this one for Pitt

http://www.stadiumjourney.com/stadiums/heinz-field-s417/

Not that anyone here is going to be surprised, but Navarro Bowman has told ESPN's Joe Schad that he will turn Pro.

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I am trying to find a copy of pre-game pump-up video they show at Beaver Stadium.  I have looked at gopsf.com and couldn't find it and the only thing I can find on youtube are homemade ones.  Any help with this would be greatly appriciated as it is for the wife's birthday.  Thanks!

Also, does anyone know of a website that has a master list of future ooc schedules for teams?  I found one that has seperate links for each team, but when trying to look at 120 FBS teams that is a couple hr process to go through them all!

I was looking for some info on when college football played exhibition games in preseason back in the day and found this link

http://www.mmbolding.com/Olyball/Olympic_Football.htm

Apparantly college football was an olympic sport in 1904!

Also found some info about when the college all-stars got to play the world champs.

http://collegefootball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=563246

And a real interesting read (from a Penn State grad) about how some schools count games in their history and others dont.

http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/CFHSN/CFHSNv16/CFHSNv16n3d.pdf

Still looking for some info on the exhibition games.  I know JoePa eluded to them once in a Presser about how we used to go down to Carlise or something and have a little scrimmage.  Maybe in the 50's?

Troy Sunderland is officially out as Penn State wrestling head coach.

According to a press release from the athletic department, Sunderland submitted his resignation and it is effective Saturday.

Sunderland's resignation comes after a week of speculation he was told he could resign or be fired by Athletic Director Tim Curley in a meeting.

A national search for his replacement will resume immediately, according to the release.

For a full story, check Monday's Daily Collegian.

Link

Looking for the Bar list and of course it seems to have disappeared a day or two ago.  I will be attending the Pitt/UL game on Saturday at noon and then I need a place to enjoy the PSU game at 3:30.  Of course a place with some decent beer and food would be nice as well :-)

Thanks.

Go Penn State and Beat the Iowa Helmet Head Birds or whatever they are supposed to be.

The BCS has us number 3 again, .009 behind Texas Tech. 

http://www.bcsfootball.org/cfb/story/8750340/Texas-Tech-moves-up-to-No.-2-in-BCS-standings

However, we just need 1 more loss from one of those 2 teams and we are ok I think. Really would like for it to happen this weekend and we will be good.  Obviously we need to finish our business as well.

Geaux Tigers!

Go OK State!

Go Penn State!!!!!!!!!!1

Anywhere in the stadium for the MSU game.  Please email at jguiher at gmail dot com with a price and how to get the money to you.  Birthday present for the old man.

Also, some thoughts on last night. 

Texas Tech is way overrated, Oregons new unis are still dumb, LSU should just shut up and learn how to cover Harvin, our ref was funny as hell when trying to talk on the mic, the dive by the punter on D-Wills return was even funnier.

http://www.centredaily.com/news/breaking_news/story/865393.html

JoePa says that the 2 Smokey McPots are "probably" going to play on Saturday.  I sure hope that this helps us.  There are only a few common opponents that we have with others and beating them is not only critical for our record but we need to beat them better then the other teams.  Such as Mizzou and Ill was 42 32 so we need to be better then that. 

Apparently the Boro just passed some BS about raising rates for those of you who use the downtown garages for game weekends.  I know this is going to hurt my business but what am I to do?

Here is the release to businesses just sent a little bit ago.

NEWS FROM THE DOWNTOWN STATE COLLEGE IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT (DSCID)
For further information, contact Jody Alessandrine, Executive Director, (814) 238-7004; dsc@downtownstatecollege.com
 
Members of the DSCID Parking Study Committee and Jody Alessandrine, DSCID Executive Director, met w/ Art Caccavale & Karen Martin from State College Borough Parking Division Friday morning.
The Borough of State College agreed to compromise with the DSCID Parking Study Committee on the proposed  new garage parking for special event weekends only. In July 2007, Borough Council passed an ordinance allowing the administration to institute new parking rates for transient or rental parking in any garage or non-metered lot for a (trial) period of up to 6 months. Here are the details of the new rate structure for downtown parking garages only:
AGREED UPON: Starts Temple Football Weekend, all home football game weekends; from 7AM Sat. to 5PM Sun.; $1.00 per hour the entire time—i.e. $24.00/24-hr. period max.
ORIGINAL BOROUGH PROPOSAL: Starts Temple Weekend, all home games; from 3PM Fri. to 5PM Sun; $2.00 per hour first 5 hours, $1.00 ea. hr. thereafter with a $29.00/24-hr. period max.
The Borough also agreed to supply business owners with MVP purchase opportunities for their employees since if purchased in advance, they pay the normal .75 cent hourly rate; and, to sit down with the DSCID after the football season to review actual revenue compared to the projected overall revenue increase.
(The other special event weekends the borough anticipates implementing increased garage parking rates are Blue/White and Arts Festival).
At 12 Noon on Friday, the administration briefed the State College Borough council at their workshop of the new agreed-upon garage rates for special event weekends. Everyone seems content with this compromise. The DSCID will keep its membership abreast of all developments.
 
Joseph J. Alessandrine, Jr., MGA (Jody)
Executive Director
Downtown State College Improvement District

The CDT posted an article with a list of the items found at the apartment.

http://www.centredaily.com/news/breaking_news/story/821548.html

The items seized include: 5 roaches (marijuana cigarette butts); 3 samples of suspected marijuana; an expired Pennsylvania learner’s permit; a bag of marijuana with an empty cigar from a trash can; mixed pills outside a trash can; a can containing a marijuana roach; bagging containing marijuana; a bag of marijuana in a trash can; ripped bagging from a trash can; a Penn State ID card.

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2008/09/03/football_players_live_at_site.aspx

There is no way that this can possibly be good.  However, reading the article I can't make out what they are talking about because why would the RA be removing the speakers and stuff and not the police unless they are kicking these kids off of campus?  I am definately confused and I can't find anything in the CDT or anywhere else.

It looks like the previous owner duped Arrington and the rest of us.  He was suppose to sale the bar to LaVar only to not show up to the closing!  Looks like he was just trying to steal some free pub.  Here is an article in todays collegian.  I know the guy didn't pay his old employees but to jerk off LaVar too is insane!

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2008/08/29/bar_faces_setbacks.aspx

I highly recommend that you all avoid Beaver Ave the first few Saturdays or at least DON'T use the left lane!

Here is the full rundown from SC Boro

Here is the Beaver Water Line Update.

Completed Work

HRI  has completed the installation of the new 12" water main on Beaver
Avenue.  They also completed connecting all water service connections
and the existing mains on the side streets to the new 12" water main
early Thursday morning. This means that all installation work for the
new water main has been completed approximately 3 weeks ahead of
schedule.

Anticipated Work Schedule

August 25 - September 12

  HRI will continue permanent restoration of the curbing and
roadway during daylight hours in the remaining blocks.  They will be
working west on Beaver Avenue from Garner Street.

ESPN has a nice article about Al Golden & Temple.  It just basically points out how bad the team was and how he has had to change everything.  It amazes me how some of these schools that lose all of the time can afford and justify staying FBS.  I however am glad that Temple and Rutgers have given it the old college try and finally found some coaches to bring success to their programs.  What is real cool is they both coached at PSU at some point.

Link:  http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/preview08/news/story?id=3547543

PS Temple, get rid of that god-awful owl sound!

Here is an article outlining the upgrades that are being done for some of Penn States athletic facilities.

http://www.centredaily.com/news/local/story/575913.html

A whole lot of stuff going on quite frankly.  In fact, I guess with all of these projects it is no wonder why we can't afford a D-I hockey team.

Congrats to the Men's Volleyball team on winning the National Championship!  We were the first team East of California to win a title ('94) and now the first team East of the West Coast to be the #1 seed.  Congrats Coach Mark Pavlik (fellow Derry Area High School grad) and the entire Men's volleyball team!

I see on here from time to time talk about the whether the icers should go D-I in hockey.  Well, the Collegian today ran an article about how they want to but are short on funds to do it, mainly because of an arena.  Apparently the BJC was originally designed to host hockey as well but they changed the plans at the last minute and now it would take 4-6 months and a ton of money to fit it in.

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2008/05/01/money_blocking_icers_di_prospe.aspx

Ok, since I bought the season ticket package from Syracuse, I just got an order form in the mail for individual game tickets before they go on sale to the general public.  It says they go on a first come, first served basis, so I would like to send it in by Thursday at 4pm.  They are $60 each and you can email me if you would like any.  Email is jguiher at gmail dot com (turn into normal email format).