Welcome to 2015 fellow Nittany Lions! With the start of a new year, we also unfortunately see the end of another great season of college football. I'd like to start by congratulating LandotheDrummer1 for being crowned this year's Prime Pick Em Challenge Champion after successfully picking the most winners from the bowl games! I actually clawed my way to a tie for 2nd place, but Lando jumped out to a nice early lead and simply couldn't be caught. I'm still working on developing a trophy for this in the future, but in the meantime, our Champion will just have to settle for this little acknowledgement and my personal congratulations!
As for Bowl Season itself, I absolutely loved it, especially the new playoff model! In my humble opinion, the selection committee simply got it right. They picked the best 4 teams, created the best 2 matchups, and we were left with the best possible National Championship Game. From start to finish it was exciting, it was suspenseful, and it was most importantly fun. The regular season was as important as ever. Conference titles clearly still mattered. All of the tradition surrounding bowl season was protected and celebrated, and in the end, to even the casual observer it just felt right. So congratulations to the Ohio State Buckeyes on being the first ever College Football Playoff Champions and go Big Ten!
The next big event on the college football calendar is the Senior Bowl this Saturday at 4pm on the NFL Network, which will feature an impressive contingent of 4 former Nittany Lions: CB Adrian Amos, LB Mike Hull, DE Deion Barnes, and OT Donovan Smith. They'll do their best to impress NFL scouts and possibly improve their draft stock. After that we move on to National Signing Day on February 4th. I'll be sure to have a recruiting update posted before then.
Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't give my take on the big news from this past week. As you know, back in the summer of 2012, the NCAA levied "unprecedented" sanctions on the Penn State football program in response to the release of the Freeh Report. Many of those sanctions were lessened in subsequent years, but a sticking point for Penn State fans was the vacation of 112 wins from the record books (111 of which belonged to Joe Paterno). Well this week, the wins were restored making Paterno once again the official winningest coach in Division I history! Here's my take on this whole matter. First, there is absolutely zero credible evidence that Joe Paterno participated in a cover up of Jerry Sandusky's crimes, let alone led one. We only know of one incident that he was aware of (in 2001), and despite only being a hearsay witness, he immediately reported what he was told to the head of University Police. By law, and by newly enacted NCAA guidelines, JoePa did exactly what he was supposed to do and allowed to do, end of story. Furthermore, regardless of how you feel about Paterno in all of this, the NCAA has no jurisdiction in criminal matters and never has. The history of college athletics is littered with examples of heinous crimes that the sport's governing body never involved itself with. Even worse, they sidestepped their own bylaws and denied Penn State any form of due process in issuing sanctions that are best described as draconian. But the most sickening part to me is that the NCAA and the media at large made this issue about football (and Joe Paterno). Penn Staters were never afforded the right to mourn Joe's death, celebrate their team's victories both on and off the field, or put any legitimate effort into helping stop child abuse. Instead, we were forced to defend our very existence for more than 3 years. In the end, because of the cowardly actions of the media, the NCAA, and Penn State's own Board of Trustees, new victims were made out of the Penn State community. Hopefully the restoration of these wins can return us to some semblance of normalcy, help us heal, and move on to more important things.
Alright, with that out of the way, we move back to football. Keep an eye out for my recruiting post in the coming weeks. Head on over to my Facebook page and give it a like or a share. Don't forget to follow me on Twitter @PSUOptimus, and as always, go State!
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