text: School Spirit 101 | PennLive.com
  on April 03, 2009 at 10:26 AM, updated April 03, 2009 at 10:34 PM
  GoPSUsports.comOne day before Penn State brought home its first NIT CHAMPIONSHIP--beating Baylor 69-63, this article appeared in The Daily Targum, written by a Rutgers Student, Adam Helfgott. Granted, it was submitted April 1st, so maybe it's more fool than fact, but in his own way, this self-professed hater of Penn State praises us, albeit in very fine print.
  But one thing I envy about those Nittany Lion students is their school spirit, dedication and love for the blue and white -- something most Rutgers students hardly possess with their passion for bleeding scarlet.
  The clear-cut difference between the two schools is how each ranks sports within the institutions. Football is king out in Happy Valley and now a blooming basketball program has even made winter somewhat enjoyable in the desolate Pennsylvania area.
  On Tuesday night, Penn State played in the final four of the National Invitational Tournament at Madison Square Garden. No, not the NCAA Tournament, we're talking about the NIT. And yes, back in 2004 the Rutgers men's squad made a similar run to the finals, where a few thousand students showed up to support their team.
  The difference is that Penn State brought 16 busloads of students to the world's most famous arena -- from five hours away! All Rutgers students had to do was take a 40-minute train ride. Penn State sold over 1,200 student tickets in a span of a few days for the game against Notre Dame. How many other schools would be able to travel like Penn State did? Expect a similar showing tonight when they take on Baylor in the finals.
  The crowd at Madison Square Garden was fantastic, and included Joe Paterno, Franco Harris and Graham Spanier. I saw Russ Rose on Tuesday night as well.
  Go to a football game at Penn State. The complexity of cheers alone would make a Rutgers student's head spin. Anytime you watch a Penn State game you see how much they love their school and how proud they are to go there.
  It's taken me years to get that WE ARE . . . PENN STATE cheer down pat. And I still have trouble with the JOEPA . . . TERNO! Very complicated stuff for the average Rutgers student.
  The argument for most would be to say sports are not as important as academics, and I agree -- to a certain point. I, like everyone else at this school, am a student first. But part of me wanting to go to a big time school was the lure of having big sports programs. Which begs the question . . . why not enroll at Penn State in the first place, if that's the atmosphere you were searching for? Or substitute any "big time school" for that matter. Did you really arrive on the Rutger's campus to discover that they don't have the same sports atmosphere as Beaver Stadium?
  The excuse that sports aren't good here doesn't exist anymore. Football has gone to four straight bowl games and women's basketball is in the NCAA tournament every year. Not to NITT pick here--okay, maybe a little, let's look at Rutger's illustrious bowl history.
  Their first two bowl games were losses to Arizona State--the Garden State Bowl (1978) and the Insight.com Bowl (2005). They have won three consecutive Bowls against the powerhouses of Kansas State (Texas Bowl 2006), Ball State (International Bowl 2007) and NC State (PapaJohns 2008). I think we can argue that Rutgers sports aren't as bad as they were in the 1970's and 80's when this writer developed his hatred of the Evil Empire, but to extrapolate that to the same atmosphere at Penn State at any point in the past fifty years is perhaps stretching the limit of reason.
  Speaking of hatred, one fan recently commented and asked why I hate Pitt so much. I grew up on PSU football in the 70's and 80's when playing Pitt meant something. It doesn't anymore. That ship sailed long ago. Some of the most malicious and hateful emails I have ever received are from a Pitt fan. And I know this person--they were not anonymous. Perhaps it is unfair to condemn an entire fandom based on one person, but I derive a great amount of joy knowing this person suffers each time Pitt loses. I relish those losses. Perhaps I need to get a life.
  Face reality. Pitt sold out their football team for basketball. They tore down their stadium and built a shrine to basketball. Losing in the NCAA tourney year after year seems to be enough for them. All this talk about adding Pitt to improve our OOC football schedule is just nonsense. What does that really add over Temple, who at least recognizes they are not in the same league and agrees to a 2-1 home-away series with us. It only helps Pitt--Not Penn State. BTW: I saw a blog article arguing the case for making TEMPLE the 12th Big Ten team! And it wasn't posted on April 1st!
  Granted, a game against Pitt would be more exciting than Coastal Carolina or Youngstown or Eastern Illinois, but I could easily come up with 30 or more teams that would be more attractive than Pitt as well--just about any SEC, Big XII or PAC-10 team for starters. I'd even prefer playing a down and out ND team. BYU. Boise State. The list goes on. Pitt fans also conveniently forget that most of the early games in our long series were played IN PITTSBURGH. Even a decade of 2-1 home-away series wouldn't even the overall record. I find it laughable that some Pitt fans think we ought to be forced to play them, like Florida-Florida State, as if Pitt is on the same par with either of those two schools. Instead, it would be like forcing Florida or F$U to play Central Florida every year.