Wednesday Afternoon Practice in Beaver Stadium This weekend Hockey Valley explodes into the national consciousness as the college hockey world turns its attention to Penn State. And while some may not love the cold weather, the snowy winter wonderland has made this valley a picture postcard perfect backdrop for a dramatic weekend of hockey.   It’s a big weekend series for the #4 Penn State’s men’s team as they host #2 Michigan State. And on Friday afternoon Penn State’s #4 Wo

1 st Down: SEC Bias has Company Going Forward: The confetti has fallen, the trophies have just barely made it back to Bloomington and already the talk has turned to the “Way Too Early Top 25” rankings for next year as well as the talk of a 16-team playoff or even a 24-team playoff. ESPN posted a way-too-early Top 25 that is loaded with SEC teams. But they also threw in an equal serving of Big Ten teams. There are no non-Power 4 conference teams in these rankings even thoug

Pre-Game Warm-ups: On Campus Quarterfinals: While the announced attendances for the quarterfinal games would indicate that the crowds were good, the images on TV suggested some softness. That's likely a function of asking fans to travel to three bowl games. Assuming a National title game run, this is how it breaks out in air miles traveled for fans of the four semifinalists. The Ole Miss path winds from New Orleans, to Glendale, AZ and to Miami. That’s 4,828 roundtrip miles.

Pre-Game Warm-ups: Notes: Opt Out Impact: A number of the bowl games we’ve seen have featured sloppy play in the first half followed by improved play in the second half. Why is that? Part of that is how opt-outs impact the performance of a team. These teams find out where they’re going and who they’re playing less than three weeks before they have to play the game. Then they have to navigate the slow drip of which players are opting out, which ones are entering the transfer

This year's Pinstripe Bowl Playlist: Baby, It's Cold Outside, White Christmas, Let It Snow and Jingle Bells (Dashing through the snow)...... 1st Down: Imagine Meeting You Here: The Pinstripe Bowl Penn State (6-6) vs Clemson (7-5) 12:00 ABC: There were a lot of people who thought Penn State and Clemson would meet in the postseason ---just not in New York City and not in the Pinstripe Bowl. Penn State was the preseason #2 team in the AP Poll and Clemson was #4. Penn State re

In this week’s playoff edition, we’ll discuss all the playoff games in Division I, including the FCS semifinals. We’ll start with this question: what is the most expensive playoff ticket on the market this weekend? Alabama at Oklahoma? Miami at Texas A&M? Wrong on both counts. The Most expensive playoff ticket this weekend is #3 Montana at #2 Montana State in the FCS playoffs. As of Thursday morning, these were the cheapest tickets to the 6 playoff games in Division I for thi