And Now For Withdrawal…

There’s always a sense of sadness when the last competitive game of the college football season ends. Football basically dictates how we spend our time every weekend during the fall. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we can watch division championship games and a lot of minor bowl games on TV. Watching on TV is not the same as being at a game in person, but we can at least see teams play that we haven’t had a chance to see all season.

Then there’s the Bowl trip – dictating where we spend our holidays – and more bowl games on TV. The Capital One Bowl gave us one last live game to see Penn State finish out the season and send the seniors off in good style. It was also a decent vacation break.

Finally there are the BCS games and the BCS National Championship game, the final college football bash of the season. We missed most of the Rose Bowl on January 1 because we were at the Capital One Bowl, then we suffered through 2 hours of traffic to make it back to our hotel. We were glad, though, to see Ohio State secure a big one for the Big Ten. We missed the Boise State-TCU game because we were traveling home from cold Florida to even colder State College. We watched the Orange Bowl intensely. Glad to see Iowa win, even though Iowa is turning out to be our nemesis in so many ways. Another important win for the Big Ten!

We watched the National Championship game with great anticipation. Terry was cheering for Texas. He likes Mack Brown better than he likes Nick Saban. I was cheering for Alabama. I want Penn State to go to Tuscaloosa and play the pre-season #1 team and beat them (somehow). The key play of the game of course was Colt McCoy’s 1st quarter injury. It was sad to see him not have a chance to play his final game, so I found myself wanting Texas to be competitive even though I wanted Alabama to win.

The game didn’t disappoint – Texas made the best adjustments they could given the circumstances, and true freshman back up quarterback Garrett Gilbert delivered an unforgettable performance in the second half to give Texas a chance to win towards the end of the game. What an opportunity – and a burden – for him to step into Colt McCoy’s shoes. The game would have been very different if McCoy had somehow been able to return.

But credit Alabama – they were awesome as a team. We especially enjoyed watching sophomore Mark Ingram live up to his reputation as this year’s Heisman Trophy winner. As a Penn State fan, I couldn’t help but think about September 11, 2010, when we travel to Tuscaloosa to play this team and see Mark Ingram perform in person. What are our chances? We’ll be debating that all spring… We have gaping holes to fill especially in our defense, and we will have an inexperienced quarterback at the helm….

So now that college football is over, it’s withdrawal time. We will have a chance to see a few Penn State players play in the East-West Shrine game this Saturday January 23 at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando – I hope they fixed that field! Darryl Clark, Jeremy Boone, and Andrew Quarless are now in Orlando preparing for this week’s contest.

Penn State players in other all-star games – the Senior Bowl on January 30, and the Texas versus the Nation all-star game on February 6 – have yet to be announced.

These all-star games are – well – a bit boring from a competitive standpoint. After all, who cares who wins or loses? Except possibly the state of Texas! The games, especially the Senior Bowl, seem to be focused on highlighting talent for the upcoming NFL draft. There’s no real excitement from watching them except that you have one last chance to watch some favorite Penn State players do well. For college football fans, it’s slim pickings, but it’s all there is. If you’re a pro football fan as well, you have a few weeks of playoffs, then the Super Bowl. After February 7, though, it’s a long wait until the competition starts all over again in August.

I had a colleague at work a long time ago who coped with winter by taping 6-8 college football games each Saturday during the fall. He would watch maybe one game per Saturday in the fall. He would save the rest for winter. I wonder if he still does that. Or does he, like the rest of us, watch classic games on ESPN and the Big Ten Network reruns, to get us through the winter?


What do you do to cope with college football withdrawal?

Best, Worst, and Most Memorable Moments of the 2009 Season

I thought that now would be a good time to look back at the 2009 season and reflect on some of those moments that defined the season. So here’s my list of the best, worst, and most memorable moments we encountered at Penn State games and in our travels back and forth to away games.

Best Moments:

1. The 4th Quarter at Northwestern: We were tied 13-13 at the start of the 4th quarter, and we were lucky that Mike Kafka, their talented quarterback, was injured. Three fourth quarter quick strike touchdowns by our offense defined that game. The 34-13 score was much closer than it appeared.
2. Winning at The Big House: Okay, Michigan wasn’t a great team this year. But the stadium was packed and noisier than ever due to the new grandstands on either side. We finally got the Big House monkey off our back. Two consecutive wins against Michigan were very satisfying.
3. Michigan State: The Ambience and the Third Quarter: Unseasonably warm weather for November 21 made the tailgating scene especially vibrant. The third quarter of the game. We were tied 7-7 at the half. During the third quarter both the offense and defense poured it on and Penn State scored 28 points! A great deal of fun to watch.
4. The Shutout Against Minnesota: A very good defensive game against a team with a winning record. A very satisfying win. The first clue we had that Penn State would be a good team this year. Minnesota was able to muster only 7 first downs in the entire game. They were held to only 138 net yards. And the weather – the freak October snowstorm and unseasonable cold – could have wreaked havoc. But it didn’t. A very solid performance.
5. The Temple Game: Picture-perfect weather, a commanding win against a team that continues to improve in the MAC conference. Treating some new friends to a game at Beaver Stadium was fun. We always hope the best for Temple. If they continue to improve under Coach Al Golden’s leadership perhaps some day this rivalry will be truly competitive. OK, I hope not…
6. The Akron Game: Mainly because it was the first game of the season. Mild weather, great tailgating, many reunions at tailgates and in the stands as we greet each other after not seeing one another for several months.
7. The Tailgating at the Ohio State game: Mild sunny weather for early November, a sense of anticipation, the Big Ten championship stakes, good-natured banter with Penn State and Ohio State fans before and after the game. You couldn’t beat the atmosphere at Beaver Stadium before the game that day. The best of the season. Even the students were in the stands on time.
8. The Capital One Bowl: An ugly win in ugly weather against a Top 25 very good SEC team.
9. Realizing that on five road trips, we brought home five wins!!! First time that happened since 1994.
10. Hearing the crowd chant “Dar-ryl Cla-rk” as we all exited the Capital One Bowl. He finally got the recognition he deserved.

Worst Moments:
1. Losing to Iowa: For the second year in a row, a loss that shouldn’t have been a loss. Kirk Ferentz seems to have Penn State’s number. The miserable rain didn’t help either!
2. Losing to Ohio State: Penn State got beat. Pure and simple. Ohio State was simply better than us. Didn’t feel quite as bad as Iowa but still tough.
3. The first half of the Indiana game: The emptiest student section of the season, for Senior Day. Penn State throws two interceptions and loses two fumbles in the first half. We were lucky to be tied 10-10 at the half. Penn State finally finds some rhythm with 6:50 remaining in the 3rd quarter, but it was a very sloppy game, and the final score of 31-20 didn’t make us very happy. Too many mistakes for a November game. Although a win’s a win.
4. Traveling to Illinois: Our wonderful airline schedule, changed with no notification to us, involved an 8 hour layover at Detroit on the way to Champaign, and a 5 hour layover on the way home. We were able to change our flights to Detroit to “only” a 3-hour delay, but a mechanical made for another two hours’ wait before we finally boarded the flight to Champaign. We could do nothing about the return trip. We were feeling under the weather that week and almost didn’t go. The airline travel didn’t help our spirits. But at least we brought home a win.
5. The Eastern Illinois game: Nothing good to say about playing a team that’s so under-matched against Penn State. Except perhaps for the best half-time band performance of the season.
6. The excuses my students gave every Monday for why they weren’t in the stands on time on Saturdays.
7. The Harrisburg Patriot-News Leak of the “STEP” Plan: Couldn’t believe that Penn State wouldn’t immediately release the plan to calm all the rumors that were circulating.


Most Memorable Moments:
1. The bus trip after the Minnesota game: In a miserable rainstorm, we waited patiently for a shuttle bus to take us back to the Lowe’s shopping center near our house. But all the shuttle buses were destined elsewhere. So a Penn State guard finally commandeers a shuttle bus destined to the airport and changes the route. It turns out the bus driver doesn’t know the way. Passengers have to guide her to all the stops. We managed to keep our good spirits throughout the ordeal of the freakiest October snowstorm on record.
2. When I was feeling “under the weather” before the Illinois game, and considering staying home, my new boss told me “You can’t miss that game. It’s what you live for!” And then he and another colleague offered to cover my Monday classes if I needed a day to rest and recover. Illinois was my 100th game in a row!
3. The fun conversations while waiting for the Champaign flight with the preacher, the grad student and the frat guy (see October blog post). Preacher Happy Leman was the proud father of Cory Leman, who played linebacker for Eastern Illinois. Gave us a reason to want to watch that game.
4. After the Michigan game, crossing the border into Windsor Canada for a night at Caesar’s Windsor. When we tried to return to the United States the next day, being pulled aside and interrogated by customs officials because there’s a Carolyn Todd listed in the NCIS database as wanted by the U.S. government for a serious crime. Being told this would happen to me whenever I left the country until the “other” Carolyn Todd is caught.
5. An $80 somewhat wild cab ride from Disney World to the Ballroom at Church Street Station to attend a free Presidents’ Reception for the Capital One Bowl. Less expensive than renting a car, though, at holiday prices in Orlando. An outstanding performance by Penn State's Musical Theater majors made it worthwhile.
6. Meeting Gershon and his wife Ronnie at the Capital One bowl. My #1 blog commenter and supporter has now become a friend!
7. Sitting in the van before the Capital One Bowl taking pictures of the torrential rain on our windshield.
8. Interacting with all of you who have commented on my posts! It’s been fun – thank you! Penn State fans are the best!


Overall, it was a very satisfying season. Congratulations to the Penn State football team and especially to our seniors for making this a good season. Thanks for all the great memories and to all my readers for giving me a reason to continue writing about our experiences!

We will miss all of our seniors who brought us so many memorable games and bowl trips over the past 4-5 years…and Navarro Bowman, who just announced that he is entering the NFL draft. That was expected, and I can’t blame him for forgoing his senior year and pursuing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity while he’s healthy enough to capitalize on it.

I will continue to post, although perhaps not as frequently, during the off-season. There’s always plenty to write about! Stay tuned…

Happy Valley Victorious Over Death Valley in Mud Valley

In a season characterized by weird weather, it was only fitting that the Capital One Bowl would be a torrential rainy mess. It was a game that was defined by the condition of the field. A field that was in terrible shape BEFORE the rain, as judged by the complaints about the field at the Champs Sports Bowl a few days before, only got worse with the rain.

If I’m Capital One, sponsoring this bowl, I’m pretty mad at Florida Citrus Sports for the embarrassingly pathetic field conditions. But as a fan, I’m pretty mad at Capital One for over-playing all those TV commercials at the game rather than using breaks to allow the LSU or PSU bands to entertain us. There's only so many times you can watch that old miner in the well wait for someone to rescue him. It's already been over-played on TV, and it was certainly over-played at the game as well.

Speaking of field conditions, I’m sure that Joe Paterno was none too happy about the pre-game and half-time activities, where both bands marched and hundreds of high school cheerleaders from some sort of USA cheerleading squad jumped up and down on the muddy field before the game making the field even more of a muddy mess. Although I must confess that it was nice to see the Penn State band do its marching routine on the field during the rain – something that never happens at Beaver Stadium because JoePa is super-protective of his home turf. If JoePa had his way, none of the bands or cheerleaders would have performed at the Capital One Bowl. But he wasn’t in control.

The LSU crowd, a cheerful, friendly, and boisterous bunch, was present in force, and I would say were the majority. Penn State was well represented though. We were also loud and boisterous. As it was pointed out at a Penn State luncheon we attended, Florida has 15,000 year round residents who are Penn State alumni, and in the winter, another 30,000 Penn Staters descend upon Florida as “snow-birds”. But the rain kept some of the fans from both teams away. There were plenty of empty seats on both sides of the field, and tickets were for sale everywhere outside of the stadium. It wasn’t a good day for scalpers.

We were glad that we had purchased a parking pass on-line. We parked in a muddy soggy field in our rental van, about 4 blocks from the stadium. There were a few tents including one nearby with a neat Penn State trailer – owned by a PSU fan who drove it down from Connecticut. But mostly people stayed in their cars and vans waiting for the few respites from the rain when they could go out and throw a few footballs. Very few folks were grilling. Although there was a group of students or perhaps young alums playing a few beer games not too far away.

We were also delighted by a visit by Gershon and his wife Ronnie. Gershon is a great fan of this blog, a regular contributor to comments, and he wanted to meet me. So we hooked up via cell phone and they found our van and stopped by and visited for a while before the game. Thanks, Gershon! I’m flattered by your effort to find us in the pouring rain and also by your loyal following of this blog. I hope we can spend some more time together in better conditions at a future game!

There were a number of people who for some reason weren’t prepared for the weather. I don’t know why. This is Florida on January 1. It can be cold and wet. And it was. Also the weather forecast for days had been predicting rainy weather. Terry and I had brought our raingear and wore several layers – we needed them all because the rain brought a cold front with it, it was also quite windy in the stands. But other fans were soaking wet in their T-shirts. Brrrrrrr.

As far as the game itself, in a game where the field conditions defined what each team could accomplish, touchdowns were hard to come by. Our defense did a great job of holding LSU to just a field goal in the first half. PSU kicker Collin Wagner was perfect on his four field goal attempts, contributing 12 of the 19 points that Penn State scored. Punter extraordinaire Jeremy Boone, known for pinning the opposing team deep in their own end zone, was probably a bit frustrated as his punts kept bouncing into the end zone rather than plopping into the mud as he had hoped. He received no help from his special teammates who couldn’t run fast enough in the mud to contain the punted balls on the one-yard line.

After a 13-3 half-time lead, it seemed that the defense fell asleep, or perhaps LSU just figured something out. Or maybe the fact that there was no more rain helped them. In any case, Penn State was able to score only 3 points in the 3rd quarter, whereas LSU managed a touchdown. Of course, it didn’t help that PSU gave LSU possession on the PSU 47-yard line because we chose to squib kick the ball after our field goal rather than kick it deep. So their first touchdown was the result of a short field. We were very dismayed by that kick choice. After a Penn State 3-and-out, LSU came right back and scored another touchdown. Now it was 17-16 in the 4th quarter, and it was quite a tense atmosphere.

Credit Darryl Clark for sustaining a long game-winning drive and taking a lot of time off the clock. It was enough to allow Collin Wagner to hit his fourth field goal and put us up 19-17. But at that point in the game there was still 57 seconds left on the clock. “Too much time,” I said to Terry. He agreed that we were in a precarious situation, thought we would probably lose. And when LSU was able to move the ball to within 20 yards of field goal range, we knew we were in trouble.

I never like to see officiating determine the outcome of the game. And I’m really not sure what happened. But an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against LSU put them out of field goal range with just a few ticks on the clock. So Penn State won the game on a controversial call. The officiating was questionable in other aspects. We were incredulous that the officials couldn’t keep track of what down it was, on two different plays. We’ll have to watch the tape to figure out what happened. In the stands we were mostly confused.

In any case, a win is a win, and this one was a big one on a sloppy day when neither team could play their best because of the weather and the field. We won against a ranked team and it was fun to hear the students chant “Dar-ryl Cla-rk” as we were exiting the stadium. He was named the Most Valuable Player and that was well deserved. He leaves Penn State with a 22-4 record as quarterback. We will miss him and all the other seniors. We’re glad they went out with a victory against a very solid Top 25 SEC football team.

Now we’re back at Disney World. Staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. The only lions and tigers we’ve seen were at the game yesterday. When we step out onto our balcony, though, we never know what we will encounter. Giraffes, zebras, roan antelope, and ankole cattle roam freely through the savannah in front of us. It’s a serene environment amidst the chaos of Disney during the holidays. We’re hoping all the kids leave today and tomorrow to go back to school so we will have a chance to really enjoy the parks for two days before we head home. Right now it’s about 40 degrees, cold and sunny.

Florida? That’s right. But still fun, especially when we win.

Penn State Athletes Convey Life Lessons

On Saturday, at university-wide graduation ceremonies, Penn State University released yet another pride of Nittany Lions into the wilderness, including many of the students in my senior marketing classes. They will be forced to find their own path through the jungle of a recovering but still bad economy. Some of them were lucky enough (or good enough, or both) to land jobs this fall. Others are still looking, or waiting to hear the results of job interviews held this fall. Still others are applying to graduate school in order to wait out the dearth of jobs. They are graduating, though, with a major advantage: the Penn State brand name on their degree, and a phenomenal network of Penn State alumni who are always willing to help fellow Penn Staters.

In any case, during the last two weeks or so all my efforts went to end-of-semester grading. Had to get the grades done so that these students would get their diplomas on time. Done, finally, as of 3 p.m. Friday.

What does this have to do with football? Nothing. I just wanted to explain why this blog has taken a back seat to my full-time job over the past two weeks. Then, just as I was about to post this blog on Saturday morning, I lost all telephone service – including Internet access. The explanation by Verizon is that there’s an area-wide outage, some sort of major cable failure. They promised me that it would be restored by WEDNESDAY at midnight, five full days after the outage occurred! Unbelievable. For someone like me, not having Internet access is worse than no coffee in the morning. It’s worse than withdrawal from nicotine. It’s just hugely bad.

Today, I drove to work just to access the Internet, check email, and post this blog. But I digress…back to my main topic.

My work as a professor and my interest in football – and other Penn State sports - are not totally separated. Every once in a while, something happens that reminds you that athletic sports at a collegiate level are different from those at a professional level. What Penn State Athletics translates to ultimately is the development of young people into the best that they can be, both on and off the field.

Three incidents reminded me of that in the past few weeks. The first was a student-athlete who came to my office hours this week. The grade this athlete received was not as high as it could have been, although it wasn’t bad. But instead of complaining about the grade, as so many students tend to do during finals week, the athlete came to my office hours to apologize for not doing better, to ask my advice on how to do better in the future, and to thank me for a great class. It was a very rewarding – and fun – developmental conversation.

This athlete applied an important principle of social influence: the ability to be likable. That’s one life lesson that I believe has to do with the way student-athletes are coached at Penn State to pay attention to academics and to have positive communication with their professors. The conversation didn’t change that athlete’s grade, but I developed a sense of respect for this athlete as a person who is serious about improving and making the most of a Penn State education.

Another incident occurred while watching the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Semi-Finals on TV the other night. In the opening introductions of the team, each player discussed their relationship with “The Widget”, Cathy Quilico, a junior defensive specialist. That brought a smile to my face. Cathy was in one of my classes last year. When she approached me at the beginning of the semester with her volleyball schedule, I looked at her and said, “You’re too short to play volleyball!” She’s 5’1” tall, basically tiny for a volleyball player. “I’m a dig specialist,” she responded.

So it was rewarding to see her play such a prominent role on the team in the wins against Hawaii and Texas, and to see the respect she had earned from her other teammates as conveyed by the good-humored introductions. It was clear to me just from watching the matches that not only is she competent at her specialized role, she is also an emotional leader of the team who is maximizing her potential.

Cathy has learned a life lesson about various paths to leadership. In a sport that is dominated by tall females, she has found a way to make a difference by focusing on what she can do, not on what she can’t, in a game she obviously loves.

Congratulations to the entire volleyball team for achieving an unprecedented third National Championship! We weren’t sure at all last night that Penn State would come back from being two sets down against Texas. They had not faced that sort of adversity in two years. But they did it. They found a way to win. What a game! Congratulations also to Russ Rose for achieving his 1000th win plus.

The final incident occurred at the Senior Banquet sponsored by the State College Quarterback Club on December 6th. In addition to numerous speeches and awards that lauded several graduating seniors, the Quarterback Club presented Brandon Short , former linebacker for both Penn State and the NFL, with its Distinguished Alumnus Award. While Brandon Short was not enrolled in any of my marketing classes, he did graduate from the Smeal College of Business with a marketing degree.

So I was very proud when he gave a speech about what he learned in his time at Penn State. It brought a standing ovation by the people who were present to hear it, and it caused Coach Joe Paterno to be overcome with emotion in his closing remarks. But rather than summarize the speech, I’ll just provide the link to the Penn State Football page on Facebook (you don’t have to join Facebook) so you can view excerpts from his speech and judge for yourself!

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/video/video.php?v=106082472739162&ref=mf

All for now. But since it may be Wednesday or possibly later before I get Internet access back, I would also like to wish you a very Happy Holiday season and a great New Year!
Carolyn Todd

Travel Choices Are Plentiful for Capital One Bowl

Pardon me for being a bit slow in sharing my thoughts about the upcoming January 1 matchup with LSU. Sometimes, other priorities take over. This weekend was an intense period of grading team projects for one of my marketing classes. There were lots of marketing plans to read and lots to comment upon. A deadline looms for me this week: it’s the last week of classes. So it’s always good to return my comments on major projects before students scatter for finals week. Got more to do, but as I always tell myself this time of the year, “this too will pass…”

We did take the time for three things on Sunday. The first was the Senior Football Banquet sponsored by the State College Quarterback Club. The second was the bowl announcement show on Sunday night. The final was making travel arrangements to Orlando immediately after the bowl announcements.

I’ll talk about travel arrangements first in this post. Later this week look for some thoughts on the senior banquet and the bowl game itself. Terry and I had been hoping for a BCS bid to the Fiesta in Arizona, but we more or less expected to be in Orlando. And we’re reasonably happy about that. Iowa did really deserve a BCS bowl more than Penn State did, because they were ranked higher than us and because they beat us head-to-head. Besides, it looks like a matchup with LSU will be a very good one for us.

Whenever Penn State is chosen for a bowl game, we have two basic choices: sign up with a tour group, or travel on our own. For the possibilities this year, we had decided that for Arizona or Orlando, we would travel on our own. If we had wound up in the Orange Bowl, we would have traveled with a tour group so we could stay in a hotel on South Beach, secure tickets, and let a tour shuttle us to the stadium.

There are practical reasons for choosing a tour, and much of it has to do with ticket and hotel availability. Tickets are included, you receive bus transfers to the game and other pre-game events, and you have the opportunity to immerse yourself in the experience with a bunch of other rabid Penn State fans. The tour groups that we have traveled with do a good job. It’s a hassle free way to go to a bowl game. We’ve traveled with both Collegiate Athletic Travel and Centre for Travel, local State College businesses with lots of experience and competent staff. The Penn State Alumni Association bowl tour is also well done. But if we were planning to go on a bowl tour, we’d just as soon support one of the local businesses in town, if their tour packages look good.

As mentioned before, we decided to travel on our own for this trip. When it comes to the Capital One bowl, we expect that there will be no problems acquiring two tickets directly from Penn State. Our Nittany Lion Club points are high enough to ensure that. Also, there are plenty of hotels in and around the Orlando area. We’ve also traveled on our own before in Orlando, and we’ve done it with a tour a couple of times. Either way works. It’s a matter of preference.

Our favorite Capital One Bowls (or Citrus Bowls) have been the ones where we have stayed at Disney World. Why? Disney does the holidays right. New Year’s Eve fireworks at any of their theme parks are spectacular. And if you stay at Disney, getting around the Disney complex is very easy through their system of monorails and busses and even boats. Even on New Year’s Eve after the fireworks it took a mere 20 minutes to get back to our hotel. We were very impressed with their transportation logistics on one of the most crowded nights of the year. Disney also has a plethora of great restaurant choices for New Year’s Eve, and I have already made reservations for a dining spot that night.

We went to a Penn State New Year’s Eve party in Orlando once, at the Peabody Hotel. We found it to be a strange affair. We sat next to some people who kept asking me about teaching at Smeal College, and I felt like I was working the entire time. I’d rather be anonymous on New Year’s Eve, and just enjoy myself. So Disney it will be for us. It’s much more fun to be a kid again than it is to play the role of college professor when you’re on vacation!

Within fifteen minutes of the bowl announcement, we looked at the choices for hotels at Disney. Tentatively reserved a vacation package for 12/28-1/3. Then looked at airlines. Wow. There were very expensive and lousy choices of flights from State College or Harrisburg to Orlando. Then it occurred to me. We were trying to return home on the Sunday of New Year’s weekend. I don’t have to be back to classes until 1/11. Looked at 12/29-1/4 instead. Much better choices, more reasonable airfares in and out of State College. The Disney package was also slightly less expensive. So, we booked airfare and hotel package through Disney. Then went online to ask for two tickets at the Penn State Athletics ticket site. Done by 9:30 p.m. on Sunday.

By the way, if you’re interested in both a bowl tour and Disney, there are some options available. Centre for Travel and Collegiate Athletic Travel for instance, both have tour packages that include a stay at a Disney resort, tickets to the game and bus transfers to the game, and other events/gifts. You can buy a land package and arrange your own flights, or buy an air package that includes flights. If you want to stay longer at Disney than the tour, I’m confident that either tour group can make arrangements for you.

The Penn State Alumni Association tour’s deluxe package is based at the Peabody Hotel in Orlando, the Big Ten headquarters where the team is staying, while its standard package is at the Rosen Plaza in Orlando. The Peabody Orlando is a beautiful luxury hotel and features the unique Peabody Ducks, who march through the hotel lobby on a red carpet each afternoon. It’s worth seeing at least once, there’s a lot of fanfare surrounding these ducks.

Another option, for those of you who would prefer to plan your own travel and find more inexpensive hotel choices in the Orlando area, is to book a game day package through the Penn State Alumni Association website. This package includes bus transfers to and from the Peabody Orlando to the game, a pre-game BBQ lunch, and a game ticket. The package is $274 per person.

Or if you want to park yourself at the game, and have your own game tickets, but want to attend the Alumni Association’s pre-game luncheon at the stadium, that’s $65 per person and you can register for that on-line at the Alumni Association’s web-site.

So we will spend six nights at Disney World. A pretty good vacation over the holidays, and we will have enough time to enjoy all of Disney at a slower pace that works for us. And now that the bowl trip is in place, and the end of football season frees up our weekends, we can move on to other things, like winding up the semester and planning for Christmas holidays…

For now, it’s back to grading…

The Waiting Game for A Bowl Choice: Almost Over!

Yesterday…grading papers while watching football games on TV. Penn State’s season is over, so all we have to do is wait for the bowl selections…

What a great comeback for Cincinnati to make the score 45-44 with 00:33 left in the Cincinnati – Pittsburgh game, clinching the Big East Championship. Congratulations to the entire team and its coaching staff led by Coach Brian Kelly for a 12-0 undefeated season.

So now that bowl piece is in place. Cincinnati is heading to a BCS bowl. Pittsburgh won’t be. So the Big Ten is one step closer to an at-large bid.

Then there’s the SEC Championship game. Congratulations to Alabama on a dominant win. That was not expected, and we were impressed. I felt for Tim Tebow at the end of the game. But he handled himself well through the tears. Class act. Alabama goes to Pasadena for the national championship, Florida will likely be chosen by the Sugar Bowl for that BCS game. No impact on the Big Ten at-large bids.

Watching the Texas-Nebraska game. A very sloppy game for Texas, their offense just didn’t look good at all. Colt McCoy had a bad day. Nebraska played a brilliant defensive game. But Texas found a way to win…kicking a field goal with 1 second left to win the game 13-12. What a game!!! It was an instant classic. Congratulations to Texas for pulling out a tight one!

One second away from BCS chaos…but all the teams I wanted to win won yesterday. Clears a possible path for Penn State in a BCS Bowl…hopefully the Fiesta! Maybe the Orange. If not, Orlando and Disney here we come.

We’ll finally know tonight!

In the meantime, today is the senior football banquet sponsored by the State College Quarterback Club. So we get to thank the players in person for a great season and thank the seniors for their contributions over the last 4-5 years to Penn State football. It’s always a good event.

Then, as soon as the bowl matchups are announced, lots of plans to make, starting tonight….but for now, back to that stack of papers…

What If the BCS Considered Graduation Rates in Bowl Selections?

Move over, Florida. Alabama is now #1, you’re #2. Sorry, Texas, Cincinnati and TCU are now ranked ahead of you and closer to a national championship pick. Sorry Iowa. Penn State is the best team for a BCS bowl. Why? As part of the BCS ranking formula, I gave some consideration in the final bowl selection picks to the NCAA reported graduation rates of college football players.

The NCAA report just came out, and a few days ago Tony Mancuso of Official Sports Reports published an article of how the AP Top 25 would stand in the graduation rankings. To see that article, click on the link on the right side of my blog (if you’re reading this in the CDT, go to the blog roll, click on see this blog with pictures then click on the link to the right). You will need to subscribe. But it’s free, and the reporting is quite good. The listings of the NCAA graduation success rates and federal graduation rates, and the rankings, can be found in an article published this week. Or you can go to NCAA.org and look at the graduation data for each school yourself.

So I thought I would take Tony Mancuso’s listings one step further and see what difference graduation rates would make in the overall BCS rankings. I made an adjustment to the BCS standing based on the difference between each school’s graduation rate and the average for the FBS subdvision. I looked at both the Graduation Success Rate (which tracks football players receiving financial support) and the federal graduation rate (which looks at all football players). Then I averaged the two differences.

So, for example, Alabama’s GSR is 67%, 0% difference from the FBS average of 67%. Their Federal Graduation Rate is 75%, 20 percentage points above the FBS average of 55%. I averaged those two percentages and came out with an adjustment of 10%. So I adjusted the Overall BCS Standing for Alabama by 10%. Whereas Texas’s GSR is 49%, 18 percentage points below the FBS average of 67%. And its Federal Graduation Rate is 48%, 7 percentage points below the FBS average of 55%. The mean is -13%, so I adjusted their BCS standings accordingly. I did these for all 25 teams included in the BCS standings.

What’s the new order?

RANK Team Revised BCS Points
1 Alabama 1.05754
2 Florida 0.985728
3 Cincinnati 0.8977595
4 TCU 0.895997
5 Texas 0.8105125
6 Ohio State 0.6946995
7 Boise State 0.693309
8 Pittsburgh 0.687033
9 Penn State 0.628992
10 Georgia Tech 0.597212
11 Oregon 0.584988
12 Iowa 0.5743275
13 Oklahoma State 0.500565
14 Virginia Tech 0.48667
15 LSU 0.352225
16 Miami (FL) 0.316578
17 Clemson 0.2828325
18 Oregon State 0.27789
19 USC 0.2498385
20 Brigham Young 0.238693
21 Utah 0.2247115
22 California 0.2165145
23 North Carolina 0.1623375
24 Houston 0.134412
25 Mississippi 0.08484

Looking at this order, the national championship picture would be very different. Cincinnati or TCU would be ahead of Texas to play Alabama or Florida. Penn State would be ahead of Iowa –a cool reward to Penn State achieving the #1 spot – the highest graduation rates among the BCS ranked teams. Georgia Tech would lose two spots in BCS rankings because their graduation rates are ranked #23 and #25 among the top 25 BCS teams.

Of course I’m sure there will be folks who will point out the flaws in such a reward system. Perhaps one of the NCAA graduation rates should be rated more than the other. Perhaps schools like Georgia Tech and Texas have tougher academic standards than other schools. Perhaps there should be a fine-tuning that also compares the football players’ graduation rates with the overall graduation rates of the school.

There are also anomalies in graduation rates. For example if a highly ranked football player (for example at Texas) decides to declare for the NFL draft early because they are projected to go in the 1st round rather than stay in college to finish their degree, the school takes a hit on their graduation rate. But who can blame the athlete for choosing not to stay in school when an injury could cause them to lose millions of dollars the following year?

Adding a graduation rate measure makes no less sense than some of the computer-based rankings that are a part of the BCS, and may make more sense. It at least gives some acknowledgment that academics matter in this increasingly commercial college football bowl scene.

What do you think?

The Waiting Game for Bowls Is Full of Suspense

We are all waiting for the decision on which bowl Penn State will go to. The two most discussed are the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida, and the Capital One Bowl in Orlando, Florida. There is also a chance that we could wind up in the Fiesta Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, or even the Outback Bowl, depending on what happens in games this weekend and next, and how the BCS deals with the at-large berths.

Of course, the Orange Bowl is the preferred choice for Penn State, and Orange Bowl representatives were present at Michigan State observing the game and, from what I understand, singing Penn State’s praises. It’s a BCS bowl, and Penn State’s basic argument is that we finished strong with the same 10-2 record as Iowa, we have a legendary coach who will not be around forever, the last game played at the Orange Bowl was one of the best in bowl history (and also the longest!), and Penn Staters will show up in abundance and spend lots of money to bolster the economy. Especially in this economy, the Orange Bowl may go for a sure bet with Penn State, rather than take chances on Iowa, which is further away, even though the Iowa fans also have a great history of traveling well and spending lots of money.

In fact, Iowa has asked that people order tickets for the bowl game BEFORE the bowl announcements are made – by December 4. My guess is that Iowa wants to prove that their fans will be there - for whatever BCS bowl that they are selected for. I don’t blame them for wanting to make their case.

Personally I believe that Iowa deserves a BCS bowl more than Penn State does. We have the same 10-2 record, but they beat us head-to-head and are ranked ahead of us in the Big Ten and in the BCS. Also, when you consider each of our games against Ohio State, Iowa gave OSU all they could handle even though they were playing under the leadership of a backup quarterback – moving the game into overtime before losing. Penn State lost every aspect of the game against Ohio State. We were solidly beaten.

On the other hand, Penn State could argue that we’re a better team now than when we played Iowa at the end of September. Plus, we won every game on the road. At the end of the season, Penn State’s win against Michigan State was more impressive than Iowa’s win against Minnesota, at least in terms of the score. I haven’t watched the Iowa-Minnesota game, so I don’t know how the game was played. Plus, there’s nothing about the BCS that’s inherently fair. It’s about TV ratings and the best chance to have an economically winning event.

So I’ll much prefer the Orange Bowl if it’s offered to us, even though I believe it’s unfair to Iowa, or possibly other at-large candidates. Or the Fiesta Bowl, which is really our first choice for a bowl game. The Sugar Bowl will be fun, I love New Orleans and have never been to a Sugar Bowl (Terry has), but we will have to miss a wedding. The Capitol One Bowl will be decent – we love Disney and haven’t been there for a while. The one bowl I personally wish to avoid is the Outback Bowl. It’s actually a very decent bowl, one of our favorites, but I would prefer not to have to go to Tampa, Florida.

For most of our marriage, our holiday plans have evolved around bowl games. There were three locations that were particularly important for us. The first preferred location was California for the Rose Bowl (because that meant the Big Ten championship) or Arizona for the Fiesta Bowl. Terry’s son Bob and his family live in Arizona, and we also have very good friends near Phoenix.

So if we headed out west, we looked forward to holidays with family, especially our grandchildren Miranda and Mike, and our friends Janet and Herb. Last year also, my sister and her husband from Boston joined us for the Rose Bowl, and we also had a reunion with our nephew and his family who live in Los Angeles. It was a great deal of fun to convert my family to Penn State fans!

So for this year, being with family in Arizona is a reason for rooting for the Fiesta Bowl. It’s always fun to open presents with grandchildren! Even if it’s after the New Year!

My mother lived in Florida, near Clearwater, outside of Tampa, for over two decades. So any time Penn State was in the running for a Florida bowl it was always exciting for her. She always wanted Penn State to win their games (but not too many games) so we could spend the holidays with her. During the football season she would send me any articles from the St. Petersburg Times that discussed the Joe Paterno-Bobby Bowden rivalry. And she would watch every game she could get on TV and call us after every game and congratulate or console us.

Whenever Penn State was chosen for any Florida bowl, she was so delighted when I would call her and tell her we were coming. But if we were destined elsewhere, she nevertheless said she was very happy for us, even though we knew she was disappointed. She was a wonderful mom, and always wanted the best for us.

We spent many a Christmas, or New Year’s, or both, with her when Penn State was playing anywhere in Florida - in Tampa, or Orlando, or even Miami. A stop in Tampa was always part of those trips. But beginning in November of 2007, she started having serious health problems, and she died, ironically enough, on Mother’s Day in 2008. I guess she wanted to make sure we never forgot her! She was 89 years old, and for all but the last seven months of her life, she had a very good life. We miss her tremendously.

After spending some time in Florida managing her affairs after her death, we have not yet returned to Florida. And I’m truly not sure how I would handle it if we wound up in Tampa this year. Miami or Orlando will be difficult enough because there are associations with visiting her – but they’re different environments and far enough away.

But Tampa is so strongly associated with my mother. All the places we’ve stayed in that area, the things we’ve come to know and love about the Tampa Bay area, are associated with her presence.

So we will have a decision to make. Do we confront those memories of my mother head on by staying at our favorite places in the Clearwater area, near where she used to live, or do we try to make the trip very different from the past – away from our favorite hotels, restaurants, and beaches where we shared so many precious moments with my mom? I guess you can tell from my writing that I haven’t finished grieving her loss. And frankly I just hope that we avoid the Outback Bowl for now. I’m not sure I’m ready to go back quite yet.

Our third favorite destination is the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio Texas. That’s not even a consideration for Penn State this year. But my best friend Jeanne from high school lives there. So for the two Alamo Bowl appearances, we’ve enjoyed Christmas with her, treating her and her boys to the bowl game, and a wonderful time overall on the Riverwalk. It’s a great bowl game, and I’m sorry to see that the Big Ten connection will not be as strong as in the past.

Another complication with this year’s bowl choice is a wedding we’ve been invited to that will occur on New Year’s Eve this year in State College. It’s a black tie affair at the Nittany Lion Inn. We have a lot of affection for the bride, because as a teenager she took good care of our cats for many years while we traveled to Penn State games and elsewhere. Her father, our good friend and next-door neighbor, has told us that it will be the event of the year in State College. We do believe that is true! We hate to miss the celebration.

So, having said all that, our preferences are as follows:

1. Fiesta bowl January 4– we will see family and friends near the holidays AND we can go to the New Year’s Eve wedding in State College
2. Orange bowl January 5– Miami is warm and nice and it’s a BCS bowl after all AND we can go to the New Year’s Eve wedding in State College. PLUS a regular respondent to this blog has promised us that he will treat us to the best Mojito in Miami!
3. Sugar bowl January 1– it’s a BCS bowl and I have never been to a Sugar Bowl, and we love New Orleans, but we will have to miss the wedding
4. Capitol One Bowl January 1– Disney is always fun, but we will have to miss the wedding. But we still hope to share cocktails with the blog respondent mentioned above!
5. Outback Bowl January 1– Tampa/Clearwater area is always nice as well, but we will have to miss the wedding. And am not sure how I will handle such strong memories of my mother, whose presence was so important for so many years.

Wow! Is this complicated or what? Such is the life of Penn State fans that go to EVERY game and have to wait to know their fate for the holidays! Wherever Penn State goes, however, we will be there.

We will know on December 6 and then we can make some plans. We just hope that it’s not too late to rent a tuxedo in State College. And if anyone has two seats on a private plane from State College heading toward a bowl early on January 1, please let us know!