Why so much hate for Penn State in the polls?

Nobody wants to face the real issues. Yes, the Big Ten's former top teams are having a relatively weak season, but Iowa is about to become a national power. And several mid-level teams are in a very strong growth period.

But the Big Twelve is "flavor of the month" amongst sportswriters. And Penn State doesn't have the whole hearted backing of many major sports writers. They're not in a major media center.

Penn State probably has the best defense in the country, and a very fine and versatile offense as well. The Pac Ten (and this is another thing that is not "politically correct" to say in major newspapers) is having a weak year, too, probably more "down" than the Big Ten.

The Big Twelve teams generally lack defense, and their pass defenses are particularly primitive. Take a look at the gross points scored, and that becomes VERY obvious.

EVERY major team in the country has "payday" games against relative patsies. Like most of college football, it's about MONEY, and the less well-known schools who want to get recruiting and cash advantages must play "big boys" to garner the attention they desire.

That's been around since the beginnings of college football in the 19th Century.

Also not well known is the fact that Paterno has "enemies of the spirit" in the media and other programs who attacked him extravagantly twenty years ago or more, saying he was "out of touch" and that his good days were "in the distant past". They are OBLIGED to belittle anything he and his teams accomplish, since they shot their mouths off so early.

In short, Penn State is far better than the rankings indicate, and several other programs are grotesquely overrated, especially defensively.

The Big Ten plays nasty defense. They have fast players, but a lot of them are not allocated to offense. This is anathema in other conferences, especially the warm weather ones, where, as the old adage goes, "offense sells tickets".

There is one weakness of the Big Ten, however, which is very, very real, albeit much LESS so in the case of Penn State than with Ohio State or Michigan. That is: the nasty, old cold weather teams tend to fade in warm weather bowl games, meaning the last "big show" has them out of shape (remember, it's bitter cold in the North ALREADY!) and out of timing by the big rush to bowl games. Also, speaking as a MidWesterner, there is a startling effect just walking around seeing people in shirt sleeves when our standard uniform is layer over layer of sweaters and coats and parkas and earmuffs and ski masks; it tends to numb the mind somehow. Penn State seems to have the highest bowl winning percentage in the Big Ten, which none of the "big name" sportswriters even acknowledges. They may not know.

Reality: Once the "name game" starts to come apart and people see names they don't recognize toward the top of the polls, everyone goes back to the balderdashes and hog washes of three decades ago. Look at how many times Notre Dame has been highly ranked in years when they weren't even mediocre!

Penn State could go undefeated (and HAS!) and defeat multiple high quality, highly ranked teams and still not be "number one". There's no justice in it, but that's how it is and has always been. And don't think it will change in a playoff system. Lots of people who don't even begin to understand anything beyond "great old names" have votes, and will have impact on the rankings.

It's not really fair, but that's exactly what is happening. Penn State is paying for Ohio State's sins over the last 2 seasons. The Buckeyes ruined the Big 10's credability, and Penn State is paying for it. We'll finally get to see how Penn State does against an elite team...and don't fall victim to the USC bashing mentality...that defense is downright nasty.

First of all it is the best conference they are ranked behind other 1 loss teams because the Big 10 sucks and you know it. They had one quality victory and that was over the Buckeyes in the horseshoe plus they got beat by an unranked Iowa team, but no worries you guys are still Big 10 champs and will play in the rose bowl. How can you call the Big 12 overrated?

Have you looked at their schedule? It's cake. They play no one. They have the 79th rated schedule in the nation. 79th!!! That's ridiculous. They deserve to be at the bottom of the 1 loss teams on that merit alone.

Coastal Carolina? Syracuse? Temple? Purdue? Michigan?

The only impressive win they have is against Ohio State. PSU will go to the Rose Bowl, and they will likely get smacked around by USC.

Dude. You have got to be freaking kidding me. The reason Penn State is behind all those other one loss teams is twofold.

1. The Big 10 sucks. Hard. You have made a mockery out of the national championship the last two years.

2. You lost to a nobody.

Their out of conference schedule was weak and the Big 10 sucked this year as a whole.

Because they only beat 2 ranked teams and then lost to so-so Iowa. They are right where they should be.

Just go and "handle USC easily" in the Rose Bowl. Once you do that you'll get all the respect you want.

Because their schedule is weak...both in their conference and non-conference.

Coastal Carolina? Temple? Syracuse? PUH-LEEZE!

Who are you going to put them in front of? Texas who lost to Texas Tech? Oklahoma who lost to Texas? Florida? USC?

USC will smash Penn st.They play in the Big 10 that's why their not rated high.