The folks over at the Berks County News recently sat down with Paterno to discuss many popular topics, including Bobby Bowden, a potential Big Ten championship game, and his opinion on the Bowl Championship Series (BCS).
He was remarkably frank regarding the BCS, saying:
I think we ought to have a legitimate champion. I don’t know whether somebody could vote and say that Florida’s better than Southern Cal, Texas or Utah. A few years ago (2004), Auburn won all of their games. I was voting in the coaches poll and I voted for the three teams that were undefeated. I got a …

Miss Congeniality has nothing on Penn State.
We’ve already introduced you to Ms. Virginia, Tara Wheeler, an ‘04 grad who danced in THON, played for the Lady Icers, and was in NROTC.
Now meet our second athletic bombshell, Alyse Schroeder. Alyse is a junior majoring in toxicology at Penn State and a sister of Kappa Alpha Theta.
In late June, Alyse won first place in boomrunning at the STIHL TIMBERSPORTS Series.
In one of the closest finals in STIHL TIMBERSPORTS history, Schroeder took down veteran and perennial favorite Shana Martin with a time of 11.14 seconds to Martin’s 11.28, digging into the last log …

Penn State Athletics finished 19th nationally in the 2008-2009 Director’s Cup standings for Division I programs. The final results were released yesterday by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.
The Director’s Cup is awarded to the school whose athletic program is successful in all NCAA acknowledged sports, with equal weight placed on all sports. That means that Football and Men’s Basketball are equally as important as the sports that get less national coverage (Women’s Water Polo, for example). Each school may have up to 20 sports count towards their score (10 men’s and 10 women’s).
Penn State finished with a …

Penn State Athletics has named Seniors Nicole Fawcett and Casey Sandy as the Penn State Athletes of the Year for the 2008-2009 season.
Nicole Fawcett led the women’s volleyball team to back-to-back NCAA Div. I National Championships her final two years at Penn State. During her time at PSU, the women’s volleyball team posted a record of 134-8. Fawcett was a four time AVCA All-American and was named the 2009 AVCA Division I National Player of the Year. She leaves Penn State second all-time in Penn State program history with 1,934 kills (8th all-time in the Big Ten).
Casey Sandy leaves Penn …

Culminating their success inside and outside the classroom, 81 student-athletes will receive degrees from Penn State this weekend.  This total marks the second highest number of student-athletes to graduate from State in a single year, only trailing last year’s mark of 83.
This year’s class includes members from 21 of 25 varsity teams.  Among those leaving the Valley are the Big Ten’s all-time leading scorer (Kevin Kelly), the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year in field hockey (Ali Scola), and the All-American of the Year from ESPN the Magazine (Christa Harmotto).  During their time in the Valley, 13 of these …

This is country college in the big city, I guess, but the Nittany Nation has begun descending on Manhattan.
PennStateNacho uploaded this picture of the Fullington convoy that is taking students and other fans to tonight’s game at Madison Square Garden.

We’ll be live-blogging the game, as Mark mentioned earlier, so be sure to check back tonight.

The athletics department is offering a sweet deal for students who want to watch Penn State play at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday evening.
$20 gets you transportation and a ticket to the game. The package goes on sale tomorrow at 10:00 am for season ticket holders and at 12:00 pm for all other students. Tickets can only be purchased at the Bryce Jordan Center Ticket Office.
The athletics department has also already said that if the Lions win on Tuesday evening, a similar package will be offered for Thursday’s NIT championship game.
[via Penn State Live]

The Big Ten Network put up DeChellis’ reaction to the tournament snub. Check it out below.

We didn’t make it to the NCAA tournament this year, but there’s always the NIT.
Penn State (22-11) is all but guaranteed a high seed in the National Invitation Tournament. That field will be officially announced at 9 p.m. [Centre Daily Times]
We’ll let you know what’s going on as soon as we can on here and on Twitter.
Updated: Penn State has garnered a number 2 seed and will host George Mason University, the number 7 seed. The game between the Nitts and GMU, who went deep into the NCAAs a few years back, will be held March 17th at 8 PM …

For about two weeks this fall, this writer had the privilege (or punishment) of attending water polo club practices. Those guys are pretty hard– their practices run from 10 to midnight every night. My sleep soon took priority, as did this little blog called Onward State, but so it goes.
The WaPo guys aren’t all blood, sweat, and chlorine though. The Collegiate Water Polo Association ran an article this week describing how the team raised money for THON. See, they couldn’t get away for all of the canning weekends due to matches, and a little car problem.
“Our team didn’t have enough …

Still catching your breath from the basketball game last night?  Here’s a review of this week in Penn State sports with a look at things to come.
As most of campus empties for spring break, the Men’s Volleyball team is staying put.  #4-ranked Penn State (14-1, 6-0 EIVA) gets set to host George Mason tonight in Rec Hall.  The team got a well-deserved week of rest, having taken on Saint Francis, #10 Lewis, and NJIT last week.  Outside hitter Will Price is averaging 3.72 kills per game, with setter Edgardo Goas and libero Dennis Del Valle contributing 12.83 assists and 3.02 …

Here’s a promo video someone made for the final men’s basketball game, courtesy of @Nittany_Nation. If you are done with mid-terms, head on over to the BJC tonight to see Penn Sate take on Illinois. The game starts at 9:00 pm.

What: The Coaches vs. Cancer student group at Penn State will be holding the 10th annual 5k run/walk this spring. All proceeds are donated to the American Cancer Society. Sign up to run or walk today, because every participant makes a difference.
When: April 18th at 11 am
Where: Starts at the IM building on Penn State’s University Park campus
Cost: You can register online for $15, which includes a free t-shirt for the first 500. There will be a spaghetti dinner the Friday before the race which is free for runners and $5 for family and friends. There will also be raffle …

Joe Battista will be leaving his current position as Executive Director of the Nittany Lion Club to become the Director of Major Gifts for the Smeal College of Business.
The Nittany Lion Club is the fundraising organization for the Penn State Athletics Department. His tenure as Executive Director introduced him to a wide variety of Penn State alumni and coaches.
We’ve met Battista a few times through classes and tailgates. He’s a born schmoozer, in large part due to his broad range of experiences with the University. Battista is a 1983 graduate of the business college and has served as the Icers’ …