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TMQB: Which Penn State Ranking or Award Snub Will Forever Make You Angry?

Some snubs just stand the test of time.

By Jared Slanina
Freddie Scott

Recently, our “blog parents” at SBN posed a question to its readers that led to a rather spirited discussion- which old college football rankings will you stay mad about forever?

Fans of every program has its list of real or perceived snubs that will forever haunt them. With college football rankings/playoff selections often coming down to subjective opinions based on lobbying and popularity contests, it’s no wonder that each year there are several programs who feel snubbed, and Penn State is certainly no exception.

For me, it will always be that 1994 season where Penn State went undefeated with one of the best (the best?) offense in college football history, yet found itself ranked #2 after a 38-20 victory against Oregon in the Rose Bowl. But that was just one of many undefeated, yet uncrowned seasons for Penn State.

This issue didn’t stop with the end of the Bowl Coalition and BCS eras. Following the 2016 season, Penn State was snubbed for a spot in the College Football Playoffs in favor of Ohio State- despite the fact that the Nittany Lions had won the Big Ten and beat the Buckeyes earlier in the season.

Let’s not forget some of the Heisman selections that left many Penn State fans scratching their heads. Larry Johnson was just the ninth player in college football history to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a single season, yet finished third behind Iowa’s Brad Banks and USC’s Carson Palmer. In 1994, Kerry Collins and Ki-Jana Carter seemingly canceled each other out with Midwest/Eastern voters to allow Colorado’s Rashaan Salaam win the Heisman. There is even a vocal minority of the fanbase that believe Saquon Barkley was more deserving of the Heisman this past year. While that may be hard to argue when comparing Barkley’s and Baker Mayfield’s stat sheets, it was still odd that Barkley didn’t even receive an invite to New York for the ceremony.

So what say you, BSD reader? Which Penn State Ranking or Award Snub Will Forever Make You Angry?

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