[NU Sports] Penn State and Bowl hopes

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

> I would rather not go into the
> Saturday after Thanksgiving and Fitz points that out in

I think things are going that way, unfortunately. If the Big Ten wants to be a big league, according to the experts, they need to spread out their season.

I agree with the spreading out part -- both for the bye weeks to recover and for the not having 2 months off before the bowls -- but would rather it be the weekend after Thanksgiving.

The Big East and Pac 10 are both scheduling games during "championship" weekend after the holiday weekend annually now. It would be wise for the Big Ten to try and get in on that weekend as well if that's the way things are in the B(C)S era.

We may want to start out by just trying a few games (as the Big East and Pac 10 have) -- maybe the MSU-PSU and OSU-Michigan games moving? Then we can see about the rest.

As for attendance, I'm not sure it would hurt NU much given how little we're producing now ... maybe the days after Thanksgiving might be a boost? And I'm sure it won't hurt the large state schools. The only ones who might be hurt by extending into the weekend after the turkey could be the "it's basketball season now - who cares about our no-bowl team" schools -- namely Indiana, Purdue and Illinois.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

PS - It is nice for the football players to have Thanksgiving with family - but fewer teams get to do that these days ... and basketball teams travel over Christmas vacation, other teams "work" over spring break, etc. The NCAA could care less about that ... or Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night games ... the only thing they get worried about is the horror of a couple extra playoff games!:)