ESPN has been one of Penn State’s biggest detractors since the Sandusky scandal, which has a multiplicative effect among their viewership. Now, all of a sudden, they’re changing their tune.
Brian Bennett writes:
Forget for a moment the unprecedented lengths NCAA president Mark Emmert traveled in order to punish Penn State for what was a criminal matter, not an NCAA rules violation. Discard the notion that those penalties and the ongoing oversight reports by former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell were mostly a public relations show. It simply never made sense to hold accountable current players and coaches who had no association whatsoever to Sandusky.
Read the rest of Bennett’s piece here.
Meanwhile, Ivan Maisel opines:
Not until Rece Davis asked me on the Championship Drive podcast Tuesday did I realize just how big immediate bowl eligibility is for Penn State. If you look at the schedule, which is missing No. 18 Wisconsin, Nebraska and Iowa, and provides off weeks before games at Michigan and against Ohio State, the Nittany Lions easily could reach an Outback or Capital One Bowl. Penn State doesn’t have the experience or the depth to get to its Thanksgiving Saturday game against Michigan State with an 11-0 record. But the new possibilities are exciting to consider in a Big Ten that could use some optimism.
LOL. I think Ivan’s been drinking from K. John’s fountain.