Bill O'Brien says he's looking into getting Penn State a quasi-bowl game against Hawai'i late in the year, much like Alabama did during its own probation days. Hawai'i could accommodate this thanks to the NCAA's Hawai'i, Alaska, and Puerto Rico exemptions, which allow a 13th regular season game for Hawai'i and their home opponents.
The Warriors currently have only a 12-game schedule for 2012, meaning there is indeed a slot open if the two sides want to make something happen. They don't currently share any open dates, so it would probably need to be a game for the weekend of Dec. 8, which currently features only the Army-Navy game.
The NCAA has forbid other bowl-banned teams from using the Hawai'i workaround to add a bowl-like trip at the end of those seasons unless UH was already scheduled, but there doesn't appear to be such a stipulation against PSU, perhaps due to the especially lengthy bowl ban.
Bowl-banned Alabama finished its seasons in Hawai'i in 2002 and 2003. The mighty Tide split the series with the Warriors, but it's hard to say what was really risked there, since no championships were on the line anyway. It might've even helped Bama pick up commitments from two California recruits in 2005, something they pretty much never do otherwise.
A hypothetical four-year series with Hawai'i could lead to even bigger recruiting exposure on the west coast, something O'Brien's going to need wherever he can get it. And for Hawai'i, it would mean adding a still-marquee (for the time being) program to a home schedule that includes Boise State already.
I think this would be great to see, for the sake of the players who won't get to take postseason trips, though there's an argument that even Hawai'i isn't big enough:
How about taking the team (and a bunch of boosters) on a foreign tour to play a couple games in Canada or Europe?
— John Infante (@John_Infante) July 25, 2012
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