That is, provided nobody backs out or hires Greg Robinson between now and then

I guess he wanted to make sure out SOS suffered EVERY year, not just once in a while when we faced Syracuse.

Here’s a (free) hint. It’s almost like they’re taking on the scheduling plan I’ve been flogging for three or four years now.

Supposedly, PSU is working on some other arrangements as well. I’ll believe it when I see it.

that is about the only reason I can come up with for people thinking Penn State “always” has a creampuff schedule. It essentialy happened TWICE, and both times (only once successful) we scrambled last minute to add a better opponent once we saw how crappy Syracuse was going to be.

I suppose people can complain about us scheduling the cupcake that is Notre Dame for 2007, or for Alabama bailing on us in 2004-2005.

I know this comes across as "blaming others for our ‘problems’ " but besides schedule 2 heavyweight OOC games every year, which no teams out of the Pac-10 seem to do.

I also guess Dan from State College forgot OSU’s impressive 2007 OOC schedule:
Youngstown State (non-1-A)
Akron (4-8)
Washington (4-9) (and 0 and friggen 12 in 2008)
Kent (3-9)

I’m trembling in my boots…that’s an OOC schedule MUCH better than Penn State’s from 2008 or 2009. I’m sure it caused OSU to get snubbed from any National Championship talks, though…oh wait, no, their inability to beat SEC teams did that for them, in the MNC game!

Or at the new Giants Stadium? My guess is that Penn State would be all over the latter, but I think Rutgers backed out on Notre Dame over the exact same issue.

Also, I’d think that Rutgers would really want to play their Penn State home game on a Thursday night. I wonder if we’d go for that? I don’t know that I’d mind it if we played like Coastal Carolina in game three, then Rutgers on the following Thursday, then scored an extra few days to prep for the first Big Ten game of the season. That’s actually got a pretty good rhythm to it.

I blame all of this on two factors.
1. Idiots. Clearly, the people on this board are pretty well informed about PSU football operations, and while frustrated by the Eastern Illinois game, at least understand that the university wants to be able to play 8 home games every other year. We might not like it, but we see where it comes from. Dan is an idiot, otherwise he would have noticed the Alabama game & Nebraska games coming up in the very near future, and that a lot of teams are in the same boat we are with adding IAA opponents.

2. Video games. People who play NCAA 2009 for PS2 or Xbox think you can schedule in real life the same way you do in the game: five minutes before the season starts, all against top 25 teams, and all at home. IT DOESN’T HAPPEN THAT WAY IN REAL LIFE. Schedules are made years, if not decades in advance. And, just because YOU want to play Florida & LSU, what makes you so sure THEY want to play us, let alone travel to SC to do it? Sure, we’d love to see nothing but interesting matchups. Some times, though, you sign Virginia and Boston College. Sexy? Not entirely. But good games against people willing to play us.

True PSU fans know what is going on and know the following things which have already been said in this thread.

1- Our OOC is almost NEVER this bad, we got caught in a bad place this year, we typically have either a great BCS team or two mid BCS/good MAC games. Does no one remember the kickoff classics, or Miami or Nebraska, or ND?

2- We are NOT the only team in America with a crappy schedule. Traditionally we are above average in that area(obvi. excluding 09). I love the TT shcedule. Last year they played 2 1AA teams and were ahead of us, hmmmm biased much?

3- I’m not one to always play the “we get no respect” card, but for a traditional power, PSU doesn’t(at least as much as they should). Think about it, Joe has been stiffed 4 times with his undefeated teams, we only have 1 heisman and recently have been getting undersold due to OSU’s weakness(UT would never get shafted due to OU’s struggles) That is at least about 80% a result of the media.

Everyone stop freaking out about this. Yeah it will be a bear to deal with, but I just feel like everyone is forgetting that we have quality teams set for the next few years and we have had them in the past, this is a blip on the radar.

We DESERVE the bashing we will recieve for this schedule, but only to a point. People are acting like this single year’s OOCdemolishes what we have accomplished in all of our history and will do in the future, as if this one year will render us a 1aa team. Get a grip, shit happens it will get better, play the games and win its all we can ask of our kids.

I dont give a shit what some idiot at ESPN says, I know Penn State and we will persevere.

but how many ESPN analysts and BCS voters share his view? It’s disturbing.

Weak, weak, weak

Last year and this year Penn State fans just have to take it on the chin. You can not defend the schedule.

You can not lash out and say Penn State scheduled Syracuse back in 03 and then discuss how Alabama moved the games from 04-05. Uh, why the hell didn’t Penn State move the Syracuse games when it was obvious in 06/07 that Syracuse would suck in 08/09? Penn State should have done the same thing that Alabama did.

If you bring up Oregon State (a good addition to the schedule) get ready for the instant comeback of it wasn’t a home and home. Penn State chickened out again by ensuring they would not have to travel to Oregon, keeping with the soft schedule theme.

This is one of those times where you have to say this is a beating we deserve. You have to take your lumps for the next year (and last year) then say we fixed the problem going forward from 10.

We all know that PSU football pays the bills for the rest of the athletic department. If the University absolutely HAS to schedule 8 home games every year, fine. Do it. Just be intellectually honest about it, and realize that unless the Big Ten has one of those seasons where four teams are ranked in the top 15 (like the Big 12 this past season), Penn State isn’t going to the national championship game with one loss. Accept it. And with the advent of the Big Ten Network and the obvious problem that ABC/ESPN has with it, don’t expect any media bandwagon to elevate the conference in the minds of the voters and the general public.

Furthermore, if the conference stays as the crappy level it’s been lately — and there’s no obvious signs of improvement in Ann Arbor, West Lafayette, or Madison that I can see — accept the possibility that a 12-0 Penn State team might not get to the BCS Championship game. And you know what? We wouldn’t deserve it, in all likelihood.

In reality, that’s the only scenario in which our strength of schedule really matters — the BCS title game. And what are the chances of PSU getting to the title game, anyway? Not great, strictly from a probability perspective. So in their view, why not go ahead and schedule that extra cupcake to make a few million dollars?

Joe HATES Syracuse. I mean, this is beef going back 20 years, but Joe hate’s Syracuse with the passion of a 1,000 suns. To us it’s some cupcake. To Joe it’s sweet sweet vengence against an opponent he’s dreamed about crushing for 20 years.

Last year, when Joe ran the 2-minute drill at the end of the half when we were winning by like 30 points, he was frothing on the sidelines and even the announcers took note. When it was 4th and long at the end of the game and we’re winning by a million, Joe decided to throw it up for a TD — that is HATE.

So say what you want about Syracuse sucking, sometimes games like that mean something more than a computer generated algorithm. If it were Pitt I doubt people would complain as much — and to Joe this series may mean even more.

I don’t know if that’s been mentioned yet. I didn’t read all the posts.

On one of the sportscenter updates here in State College, they said we’re in talks with Miami for a future home and home

I don’t care about what talking heads think/say. Therefore, I do not care who the media picks for their polls and who the almighty BCS spits out. All that I care about and all that I can ask of the kids who play for Penn State is to go out and attempt to win every game. Thats all, regardless of who we play, the only thing these kids can do is try to win every game. If they lose some, whatever so long as they try hard and show sportsmanship.

If we end up in the good graces of ESPN or get put into a MNC game, fine, I’ll still support the guys the same, if not who gives a flying crap. Why are so many people hell bent on being USC, or being considered by Mark May to be a top-flight program?

Regardless of our current media standing, or who is top dog in the NCAA, I would trade NOTHING to have our program be any different. I am sure as hell not disappointed in the guys or JoePa, they go out and win thats all. The day we sell our souls to become NCAAF elite is the day I stop following PSU, until then, remain proud in your program and don’t be so worried about anything else because it doesn’t matter, at all. It’s like a god damned high school popularity contest, none of it will matter in 5, 10, 20, 50 more years, its a cyclical and most of it is bullshit.