EAST LANSING, November 19—The Nittany Lions of Penn State (10-1, 7-1 Big Ten) sloppily knocked off the Michigan State Spartans (5-6, 2-6) to win half of the Big Ten championship. The final score was 31–22 in this war of attrition, in which neither team played very sharp. Drops, turnovers, a missed field goal, and penalties by the Spartans lost the game for them, rather than Penn State winning. Nevertheless, the Nittany Lions prevailed, and the t-shirts with “Big Ten Champions” on them came out before the end of the game. Michigan State fans, who had been hoping for a victory that would have rendered the Spartans bowl eligible (albeit the Motor City Bowl, not exactly an exotic holiday destination for fans from East Lansing), will have to wait for next year.
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I’ve been griping that I couldn’t find a decent picture of the Land Grant Trophy. I’ve now located a much better photo of the actual trophy, such as it is, thanks to reader Ricci Manner, who pointed me to today’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. In his article, Chico Harlan describes the trophy as, “…an eyesore award that basically looks like an oversized Rubik’s Cube after five minutes in the mouth of a rottweiler.”
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