Blue White Illustrated

State camp could have hoped for, as the Nittany Lions stunned the heavily fa- vored Badgers yet again, this time in Madison. Both of those finishes were far more rousing than the last Penn State season that actually did end in a bowl game. That would be the 2011 season, in which a battered and distracted Nittany Lion team trudged off to Dallas for the Tick- etCity Bowl and was thrashed by Hous- ton, 30-14. A lot of sad storylines converged at Cotton Bowl Stadium that year, and the TicketCity Bowl is certain to go down as a uniquely dreary moment in Penn State's postseason history. But it also goes to show that bowl games are not al- ways the joyrides that corporate spon- sors and Sunbelt tourism officials would have you believe. Sometimes, the jour- ney really is more appealing than the destination. And sometimes it isn't. Houston's Case Keenum could proba- bly have slung another four or five touchdown passes against Penn State's demoralized defense if the TicketCity Bowl had still been in doubt after the first quarter, but that's not a particularly good example. Bowl games have also played host to some of the most memo- rable moments in the program's history. Comeback victories, national champi- onships, doomed but valiant rallies – the Lions have experienced all that and more in the 44 bowl games in which they have played. During Bill O'Brien's two seasons in charge, Penn State made the best of a bad situation, emphasizing the regular season while simultaneously downplay- ing the need to cap everything off with a trip down South for the holidays. Bowls? Who needs 'em? Why spend all that time in Florida or California when you can spend it in the weight room? Think of the savings in sunscreen alone. That was the talking point, anyway. When you're banned from postseason compe- tition, you do what you've gotta do. In reality, though, every team wants to go into its season believing it has at least a theoretical chance to reach the pinna- cle of the sport. Those aspirations are good for team morale, for recruiting and for season-ticket sales, and that's truer than ever now that college football has finally come to its senses and imple- mented a postseason playoff that dou- bles the number of potential national champions coming out of the confer- ence title games. The path is a lot more straightforward than it was back in the 1980s and '90s when the Nittany Lions' hopes of contending for the national ti- tle were contingent on an array of fac- tors that were largely beyond their con- trol. Not even an undefeated season was enough to ensure a title shot back in those days, as Penn State found out to its dismay in 1994. Two decades have passed since the pollsters declined to give PSU a share of the '94 national title despite its 12-0 record, and over the years, the pro- gram's postseason objectives have be- come more modest. After defeating Oregon in the '95 Rose Bowl, the Lions played in only three more major bowls under Joe Paterno: the '97 Fiesta, '06 Orange and '09 Rose. In between those successes were a lot of trips to second- tier bowls like the Outback (four) and the Citrus/Capital One (three). And when the NCAA imposed its penalties in July 2012, even Orlando and Tampa became hazy, unattainable dream- scapes. They still were unattainable as of this writing, but there were hints and whis- pers that things may be changing. At a mid-August meeting, Penn State's board of trustees reaffirmed by a vote of 19-8 the university's willingness to follow the terms of the consent decree, which, as presently written, will keep the Nittany Lions out of the postseason until 2016. The vote upset some Penn Staters, no- tably the eight alumni-elected trustees who saw it as yet another capitulation to the NCAA. But it was also an endorse- ment of a process that could restore the Lions' bowl eligibility as early as this year. In revising its scholarship penalties against Penn State last September, the NCAA stated that it "may consider ad- ditional mitigation of the postseason ban in the future." Well, the future is here. If athletics monitor George Mitchell were to turn in another favor- able report – the next one is due to be released soon if it hasn't already come out by the time you read this – the Lions could find themselves eligible to com- pete for the Big Ten title and for one of the 10 bowl invitations that will go to Big Ten teams this year. Penn State president Eric Barron said shortly after taking office in May that the university should be rewarded for its compliance, a stance he reiterated in an interview with BWI in early August. "We're not the ones who make this rec- ommendation, and we're not the ones who vote on it and decide. That de- pends on Sen. Mitchell, it depends on the Big Ten and on the NCAA board," he said. "I can only say that my personal philosophy is to reward those who do well." Penn State was quick to implement the 119 recommendations contained in the Freeh report, so the remaining questions have more to do with its fol- low-through than its commitment. As- suming that Mitchell is satisfied with all those new practices and policies, it will be decision time for the NCAA. The governing body of college sports has al- ready laid the groundwork. If it was se- rious about its willingness to further modify the consent decree, the next step would be to roll back the most onerous sanctions that are still in ef- fect. If it does roll them back – and granted, the hypotheticals are starting to pile up – all eyes will be on James Franklin. Penn State is in a potentially awkward spot right now with the hopes and ex- pectations of a reinvigorated fan follow- ing having outpaced the program's on- field progress. Penn State has boosted its season- ticket sales by 5,000 in what can only be seen as a measure of the enthusiasm that Franklin has stoked in the eight months since his arrival. A lot of those fans are looking for eight or more wins in 2014, to judge by the online poll that BWI con-

• Cover