This is the first time in nearly 20 years that a Penn State player will be absent from the active roster of either Super Bowl team. However, all is not lost, as Jim Caldwell, the Colts Head Coach, was an assistant under JoePa from 1986-1992. Kevin is currently working on a Jim Caldwell story, so stay tuned. Isaac Smolko is on the Colts practice squad, and Ray Rychleski, the Colts special teams coordinator, was a GA with  Penn State in 1991. That is enough for me to root for the Colts. That and the the fact that Peyton Manning will kill a snitch.

As of 4 pm, the line was Colts -4.5 and the O/U set at 57. Check an interesting list of prop bets here (my favorite is the O/U on number of Pete Townshend "windmill" moves at halftime).

Other things to watch for: amount of coverage devoted to Kim Kardashian, Archie Manning, and Hurricane Katrina; ESPN stories about Tim Tebow during/after the game; admitting to yourself that you like the heartwarming Budweiser Clydesdale commercial more than whatever funny commercial turns out to be the best; and phrase Jim Nantz uses at the end of the game to describe the moment ("A win for the ages!" or "One for the books!").