Bobby Chen

Penn State's 2014 recruiting class now stands at eight members with a verbal commitment from Marcus Allen, a 6-1, 187-pound safety from Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Per Rivals, Allen had also received offers from a number of Big Ten programs -- Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue, and Wisconsin, in addition to incoming members Maryland and Rutgers.

On Wednesday, an anonymous couple donated $2.2 million to Penn State's Geochemistry program, housed within the Geosciences department of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. The $2.2 million will endow a faculty chair in Geosciences, which will bring "an individual who is among the very best" in the field to Penn State.

Ain't no such thing as too many four-star wide receivers, if Bill O'Brien's recruiting is any indication. Last night, Penn State secured a verbal from Middletown, Delaware's Chris Godwin -- the third four-star receiver to commit to O'Brien's program in the last 10 days, joining fellow commits DeAndre Thompkins and Troy Apke.

Blue and White game attendees — and Penn State football players, themselves — were in for quite the surprise today when Bill O’Brien, mic’d up on the field, called an entire drive through Beaver Stadium’s PA system.

"Public Ivy" Penn State is the 61st-ranked university in the world and the 34th-ranked university in the country, according to Thomson Reuters' Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2012-2013.

4-star receiver Troy Apke, from Mt. Lebanon, PA, committed to Penn State yesterday over his father's program at Pitt.

Penn State, meet your 25th-ranked International Quidditch Association (IQA) team, which will be competing in the Quidditch World Cup this coming weekend. No, they may not have flying broomsticks or enchanted Bludgers, but the Muggles of the Penn State Quidditch club play a similar and equally impressive version of the wizarding sport of "Harry Potter."

HackPSU gave entrepreneurs from schools such as Penn State, Michigan, and MIT 24 hours to create and pitch product prototypes, ranging from a soon-to-be iOS app called Hologram to an intriguing yet wholly sketch website concept called hackmyj*zz.com. No, that is not a link to a porn site. Yes, that is apparently the market price of Mark Zuckerberg's semen.

What's HackPSU? Think of the hacking scene -- minus the tequila shots, sorry -- from the from the Social Network; add 160 (and counting) entrepreneurs from Penn State, UPenn, Michigan, Carnegie Mellon, Illinois, and Pitt; and, for good measure, throw in Reddit co-founder Steve Huffman along with other Silicon Valley big shots as judges for the event.

If you haven't heard of her yet, you probably will soon -- Penn State sophomore Nicole Kelner runs the handbag company Nicole Kelner Designs, whose SmartPurse™ was just featured in April 2013 issue of Vogue UK.

To all the Rodney Erickson fans out there: the university is searching for his successor and wants to hear your opinions on who should be the next president of Penn State.

In what may be the biggest upset of the year, Penn State stunned #4 Michigan 84-78 to emphatically record its first Big Ten win. Read our full recap with player and coach reactions, a video of students storming the court, and a photo gallery of the game after the jump.

Congratulations are in order to Penn State's Smeal College of Business, whose MBA program was recently ranked 15th in ethics out of 82 schools as part of Businessweek's Best B-School's Rankings. If the rankings are to be believed, Penn State is more ethical than MBA powerhouses such as Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, Harvard Business School, Penn's Wharton School and Stanford Graduate School of Business.

From March 18-23, the College of Information Sciences and Technology will be hosting the second annual #ISTStartup Week. The event is designed to showcase various entrepreneurial talent from across the country, among them Penn State alumni such as Weebly co-founder David Rusenko (Class of '07; @drusenko) and Sincerely co-founder Matt Brezina (Class of '03; @brezina).

Unfortunately, one of the dominant story-lines of this year's THON has been the pervasive problem of lines to get into the BJC. This morning was no different, with problems surfacing as early as 3am. Given that the Jordan Center closed its doors around 7am last year, many orgs were not expecting to have to vie for seats in the stands so early on THON Sunday. We spoke with chairs in Special Interest Orgs Springfield, Atlas, Apollo, and Ohana about the line-related issues during this year's THON.

Congratulations, THONers: You've made it to Hour 14. Hopefully y'all are still wide awake, energetic, and dancing. Keep in mind, though, that we're in the first leg of the marathon and still have the bulk of THON to go. If you're planning on staying for all 46 -- or at least for a substantial part of all 46 -- you're going to want to budget your energy accordingly. To help you with this task, we here at Onward State have compiled a brief list of tips and tricks to keep your energy levels up for as long as possible.

Meet Apollo For the Kids, a fledgling Special Interest Organization currently in is its second year of existence. Last year, the then newly-formed org raised an impressive sum of just over $37,000. This year, Apollo returns to THON as no stranger to the weekend's shenanigans, with yellow-clad members holding down fort in their section among other Special Interest Orgs such as Atlas, Springfield, and Ohana.

Just a little while ago here at the Bryce Jordan Center, we learned this year's Line Dance for the first time. We were curious, though, about what other THON attendees think about this year's Line Dance. Here are some reactions from the people that we talked to.

Tonight, Penn State Men's Basketball (8-13, 0-9 Big Ten) will vie for its first conference win against a struggling Purdue squad (11-11, 4-5 Big Ten) but let's be real, you are reading this preview because this game is your last chance to obtain a free Penn State basketball snapback. (Incidentally, tonight is also Dollar Dog night). Hear me out, though -- this game may well be the Nittany Lions' most favorable matchup for the rest of the season.

We here at Onward State have found the perfect solution to your weather-related misery: Weather Puppy, an app that pairs your forecast with a corresponding puppy. Can you say "Awwwww"?

In a day that began with a much-publicized scuffle between two Michigan State players, the Spartans were able to overcome the distraction to hold off a scrappy Penn State team for Tom Izzo’s 200th conference win. Though Penn State drops to 0-5 in Big Ten play with the 81-72 loss, there was a lot to like about their performance, especially given their recent string of ugly losses.

Meet Kevin Montminy, a sophomore guard for Pat Chambers' men's basketball squad who also happens to be a member of Penn State's prestigious Schreyer Honors College.

Next Wednesday, January 16, the Penn State chapter of Oxfam will co-host an Oxfam America Hunger Banquet® with two other student organizations, Food for Thought and Global Brigades. The event is an interactive hunger simulation that inspires people to action to fight hunger and poverty worldwide.

What was billed as a winnable game for Penn State turned into a blowout as the Northwestern Wildcats (10-6, 1-2 Big Ten) blew past the hapless Nittany Lions for the 70-54 win. The game was not even as “close” as the final score indicated.

The Lunar Lion team -- composed of Penn State students, faculty, and engineers from the Applied Research Laboratory -- will be participating in Google Lunar X PRIZE, a competition to land a privately-funded robot on the moon. I was able to sit down with Lunar Lion Team Lead Michael Paul to discuss everything from the project itself to his views on the evolution of the aerospace industry to Penn State's role in the future of space exploration.

Good news, gamers: According to Penn State researchers, you aren't destined for a life of failing relationships and dwindling friendships. Read more about the researchers findings after the jump.

The No. 10 Lady Lions crushed Georgetown 97-74 behind a record-setting performance by junior guard Maggie Lucas. Lucas went on an absolute tear in the first, tallying 20 points in the first 10 minutes and 26 by the half. Her 39 points on the game broke the BJC's single-game scoring record by either a men's or women's player, and tied the third-best scoring performance by any Penn State basketball player in history.

The sixth-ranked Lady Lions were upset by Miami (FL) 69-65 in last night's ACC-Big Ten Challenge game. After trailing for the first 31 minutes, Penn State managed to battle its way back but could not pull out the victory in a game that was decided in the final seconds.

Though Tim Frazier is out for the season, his absence could end up being a good thing for the men's basketball program. This young team will have a year to develop on its own, and if Frazier returns, he'll return to a team even more promising than this year's. The future looks bright for Penn State basketball.

Playing in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off Tournament last night, Penn State Men's Basketball fell to No. 6 North Carolina State 72-55. Penn State guard Tim Frazier put up 23 points on 6-20 shooting -- incidentally surpassing the 1,000 career point mark in the process -- but the Nittany Lions were outgunned and outmatched against the Wolfpack, the tournament favorite and the highest-ranked team in the Atlantic Coast Conference.