RSS | 
Twitter
| 
Be a fan!
Nothing added with extra game
Penn State won a 52-3 thriller.
Meanwhile, in New Jersey, Rutgers rolled over something called Texas Southern, 42-0.
Those weren't the only games Saturday that pitted teams from major conferences against Division I-AA fodder. North Carolina beat Georgia Southern, 42-12, and Miami (Fla.) routed Florida A&M, 48-16.
Rate This Story:
1 the lowest - 5 the highest
Current rating:
Last week, Penn State coach Joe Paterno was asked by reporters why the Nittany Lions scheduled a game against Eastern Illinois instead of a I-A opponent. Paterno said scheduling is handled by athletic director Tim Curley and associate AD Fran Ganter.
"They didn't come to me. Either they didn't feel it was appropriate, or they didn't feel there was anybody available," Paterno said.
Apparently, scheduling a game against Rutgers, or North Carolina, or Miami wasn't appropriate because it would go against the scam perpetrated on fans in 2006, when the NCAA added a 12th game to the season. While fans were seeing great interconference matchups, athletic directors at the major colleges saw other things:
Money and easy wins.
That Penn State and Rutgers weren't playing one another last week is another case of big-time programs taking advantage of the system and scheduling an automatic victory. Add a creampuff opponent to the home schedule, get an easy victory, make millions for the athletic department and get closer to qualifying for a bowl game in someplace like Shreveport or El Paso.
Penn State's non-conference schedule of Akron, Syracuse, Temple and Eastern Illinois is the gold standard for creampuff scheduling. By scheduling these games, Penn State not only loses respect, but as the loss to Iowa proved, it hurts the Nittany Lions once the Big Ten schedule begins.
• With three weeks left in the high school football regular season, the best battle for postseason berths is in the Class AA Interstate Conference. Mt. Pleasant (6-0) is in first place with Charleroi and Jeannette one game back. McGuffey, Washington and Greensburg Central Catholic each are two games out of first place. Only four of the six will make the playoffs. Two good teams will be left out.
The best news is that each team controls its future because there are seven games remaining that match Interstate contenders, starting Friday night with McGuffey at Charleroi and Jeannette at Washington.
• The WPIAL will be holding a sportsmanship committee summit Nov. 17. Each WPIAL school is encouraged to send four student-athletes to the summit, where guest speakers will talk about the importance of sportsmanship in athletics.
The conference will be held at the Heinz Regional History and Sports Museum. From what I've read and heard, it should be held at a Clairton football game.
• Since the NCAA started the divisional setup in 1978, only four schools - Notre Dame, Washington, USC and UCLA - have not scheduled a game against a I-AA opponent.
• When the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Colorado Rockies in Game 3 of their playoff series, the final out was made at the insane time of 2:15 a.m. Monday morning. I wonder if anyone on the East Coast was awake to see it.
Can you imagine the NFL starting a Steelers playoff game so late that it ends after 2 a.m.? I didn't think so. This shows how Major League Baseball cares more about rights fees and TV commitments than the fans. As long as commissioner Bud Selig can squeeze an extra dollar from a television network, then fans can either show up bleary-eyed at work or miss a playoff game for a team they've followed for six months.
Sports Editor Chris Dugan can be reached at dugan@observer-reporter.com
