Iowa's win makes Penn State (and Big Ten) look good

by Mr. Rosewater on Sep 28, 2009 5:27 AM EDT

Holy krikey, it's 5 in the morning and I haven't been able to sleep! No, I'm not struggling with the loss; something happened to my sleep schedule while tailgating. Maybe it's the alcohol, maybe it's the fact I'm still on West coast time.

Anyways, let me waste some of your precious moments by extending carolinaeasy and millzners' optimistic take on the rest of the season. Looking at the AP and Coaches poll, Iowa entered the top 25 giving the Big Ten 4 teams on the proverbial, yet meaningless, list instead of three. Good for them and good for us, I say.

Now hear me out. I'm speaking purely from the intangible "sexy factor", as opposed to technical/statistic's analysis (who wants to read numbers anyway? Not Mark May), but if you look at conference representation, the Big Ten now has one less than the EESSSS EEEEECCCEEE and the Nintendo 12, one more than the Pac -10 and the ACC, three more than the Big Least and the Mountain West, MAC, etc.

Why does the Iowa entrance into the polls do for us? Well, now we lost to a ranked team - which is fully acceptable (as opposed to USC losing to Washington) and on par with every other top ten school who, in my opinion, will lose at least one game to a ranked opponent. Hopefully they'll lose to an unranked one. And guess what? We have two more ranked teams ahead of us, which if you remember from the preseason polls, we only had two teams (Buckeyes, Nits) representing the conference.

Okay, we can't take the other unranked opponents for granted, and neither can Iowa or anyone else. But at least we're in the mix of things rankings wise. And who knows, we may be one of the few one loss teams, or a handful of two loss teams by the end of the season?

Now three losses, well, then it's the Capital One bowl.

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Comments

yes, this loss hurts bad but it is better to lose in week 4 than it is in week 11… Can the Lions take care of business down stretch? we’ll see…

Lot of football left. can’t get down now. puke and rally time! 11-1 can still gets us a BCS bowl and with a bunch of luck could get us an MNC chance.

by WETSU on Sep 28, 2009 8:42 AM EDT reply actions

$$$

10-2 gets us a BCS bowl too. It’s all about the money with the at-large spots.

by The Mess on Sep 28, 2009 10:37 AM EDT up reply actions

If Iowa wins out and gets the automatic bid

and our second loss is Ohio State, and they finish with a better big ten record than us, they’ll probably get it.

by PSUisMyHeart on Sep 28, 2009 2:00 PM EDT up reply actions

first off, Iowa won’t go undefeated mainly because they slip up eventually, but on the bright side, at least if they DO go 12-0 they will show up to a BCS Bowl. Unlike tO$U has the last couple of bowls!

"Want a donut go to dunkin donuts, want a linebacker go to Penn State." - Chris Carter

by xozte on Sep 28, 2009 10:16 PM EDT up reply actions

I'm not so upset with losing.

I’m so upset that we’re not that good. Looked to me like we were a worse team than a pretty average Iowa team. We were worse and played worse at home at 8pm etc. The only way we’re any good is if Iowa is very good. Not buying it.

by PSUinBOSSton on Sep 28, 2009 9:25 AM EDT reply actions

I'm pretty certain Iowa is decent

Aside from the Game 1 debacle against UNI, they were damn good against a decent Arizona team. Besides, the season’s young and let’s be honest, 6 years ago we would be chomping at the bit for an opportunity to go to the Capital One Bowl.

Or maybe it’s just the fact that I attended dear old State 2001-2004 and saw some of the WORST teams PSU has ever put together (LJ carried the ’02 “team”).

by cjapsu on Sep 28, 2009 12:29 PM EDT up reply actions

That's all well and good...

if we could be a 1 loss team at the end of the season. After what I saw out of our team Saturday night, I don’t think that’s in the question. I’m thinking 8-4 or 7-5 unless we have some major improvements… we’re just plain bad right now.

by PSUMBBtrumpet on Sep 28, 2009 11:21 PM EDT reply actions

as horrible as that ass beating was

at least it makes it more likely the team will end up in Orlando or Tampa this winter. That will be nice I guess. There’s nothing worse than that moment when you realize your team is not that good. We’re not. It’s that simple. Not a very good team.

"It was an attrition football game and you know we like that."

by showtime on Sep 29, 2009 11:36 AM EDT reply actions