Midweek Musings - Picking a Non-Regional Rival

We’re stuck in full off-season mode, with very little actual football to discuss. The announcement of the Auburn kickoff time got me thinking about “unusual” opponents for Penn State. Teams that the Lions don’t play all that often, and it got me thinking: if you could pick an “atypical,” non-regional rival for Penn State, who would it be and why?

I’ll go first: if I could play one team on a regular basis (every year or every other year, home and away), I would go with the USC Trojans.

Both programs are steeped in tradition, and are considered blue blood programs for the sport of college football.

Both teams feature utterly classic uniforms, more or less unchanged in decades.

Both teams have had runs of being exceptionally good, and then a few runs of not so good.

Perhaps most importantly, they’re just not usually considered as a rival to Penn State.

Pit two top-15 Power 5 teams against each other, from opposite sides of the country, with a whole boatload of a tradition, every year or every other year? Yes sir, sign me up.

Some other candidates for me include:

• Alabama Crimson Tide
• Georgia Bulldogs
• Oklahoma Sooners
• Texas Longhorns
• Washington Huskies

Basically, give me a blue blood program, with a good bit of success (recent or historic), and some good old-fashioned tradition and pageantry, and I’d be all in.

What say you? Who are your oddball would-be rivals for Penn State?