Penn State vs. Florida at the Outback Bowl: It's Finally Here

Maybe now the focus will be on the players rather than on the two championship coaches leading the teams.  Maybe now we can concentrate on the game rather than on Joe Paterno's health.

There was nothing unhealthy about Joe Paterno's Pep Rally talk today at the Tampa Bay Convention Center in downtown Tampa.  In fact, it was classic Joe Paterno - he was funny, engaging, and enjoying his ability to rev up the crowd with jokes about Gators with funny looking jaws and "We Are..." cheers.

Penn State Football: STEP Reality Sets In As New Seats Available in January

Yesterday we finally received a letter from Penn State's Nittany Lion Club giving us our designated date and time to choose our new seats at Beaver Stadium.

Four of our season tickets in Section WA are being relocated due to the Seat Transfer and Equity Plan (STEP).   Originally we were supposed to select our new seats in November.  But then there was a letter sent to us explaining that the selection dates were pushed back to January.

The actual time window for this first phase of the seat selection process will now begin on January 7, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. and will continue through January 28, 2011 at 6:00 p.m.  According to the letter we received:

"All selection times are assigned in NLC point total order and are eligible to begin selecting every 3 minutes.  This means that the longer you take to select, the more season ticket holders with lower point totals are eligible to secure seat locations before you do."

So what does that mean for us?

The Google AdWords Thank You Video for A Campaign That Failed

Aside from the fact that I love Penn State football, I write this blog because it forces me to understand and to experiment with social media marketing.

As a marketing professor, I can discuss in my classes the impact of blogs on opinion leadership that can shape consumer behavior.  I can experiment with content and see what draws the best responses.  I can use Google Analytics to perform a statistical analysis on who's visiting my blog, how often, and from where.

Going Outback Bowling in Florida

The young genius who is quitting will face the old genius who refuses to quit.

Amazingly, after an up and down season, a 7-5 Penn State team has earned a New Year's Day bowl in Florida.  The Nittany Lions will be playing the Florida Gators, a 7-5 team coached by Urban Meyer that has had its own ups and downs. They will meet at the Outback Bowl in Tampa, Florida.

And, announced this week, it will be Urban Meyer's last game.  He has just resigned as head coach of the Florida Gators.   It doesn't sound like he will change his mind this time.  He is 46 years old.  Joe Paterno will be 84 when this bowl game is played, and he has no intention of resigning.

Penn State vs. Michigan State: Sparty Triumphs as a Lion Rally Fails

Ugh.  It wasn't any colder than it was two years ago when the Michigan State Spartans descended upon Beaver Stadium, but it sure felt that way.

Two years ago, a win against Michigan State would have given us a share of the Big Ten championship.  So the stadium was full through the fourth quarter, and excitement was in the air.  The reward for a win was a trip to the Rose Bowl.  The tightly packed bodies in the stands kept us all warm, as we anticipated a championship celebration complete with confetti and roses.

This year, in weather that was in the mid-30s but felt like the low-20s due to wind,  it was Michigan State that was playing for a share of the Big Ten championship.  But a lot of other things would have to happen for them to go to the Rose Bowl, most specifically Michigan had to beat Ohio State, something that Spartan fans had a hard time dealing with.

Penn State vs. Michigan State: Will the Spartans Finally Win One at Beaver Stadium?

With a strangely phrased reference to the John Travolta classic song, "Greased Lightning", this week's Penn State button looks like this:

Joe Paterno Plans to Stay One More Year: No Surprise Here in Breaking News

Anybody who has listened to Joe Paterno talk about retirement knows that he dreads the thought.  That he really doesn't know what he would do if he wasn't coaching football.  He has said numerous times that he doesn't play golf, nor does he have any other hobbies.

Penn State-Indiana Football: Great Plays Absolutely Positively Make the Difference

Penn Staters, take note.  This is what football looks like when you're a program that is desperate for money to support competitiveness in Big Ten play.  Where a $3 million guarantee from an NFL field hundreds of miles away from your primary fan base will be enough of an incentive for you to schedule a "home" game closer to your opponents' fans than to your own fans.