Blue White Illustrated

n mid-September, the NCAA re- scinded most of the draconian sanc- tions placed upon the Nittany Lion football team in July 2012. It was one of the most memorable moments in the 127-year history of the sport at Penn State. Yet two major penalties remain. One is the NCAA's vacating of 111 vic- tories coached by Joe Paterno, beginning with the 34-6 season-opening win over Southern Mississippi on Sept. 4, 1998, and continuing through his last game, a 10-7 victory against Illinois on Oct. 29, 2011. That sanction is being fought through a lawsuit by the Paterno family that is making its way through the court sys- tem. The other penalty was approved by the NCAA but was actually imposed by the Big Ten Conference. It prohibits Penn State from sharing the Big Ten postseason bowl revenue until 2016 – a sum that is expected to average between $13 million and $19 million annually for each team. Whether that penance is altered in the near future is debatable, and it will take heavy lobbying by Penn State o?cials to accomplish. The fact is, the Big Ten hierarchy and its football faction has not been kind to Penn State at times. It started even before the Lions played their =rst conference game in 1993, when most of the reigning Big Ten head coaches vociferously opposed Penn State's entry into their sanctum. O?ciating, especially when Michigan is involved, has been a particular sore point for Nittany Nation. Yet, because of Penn State's aggressive stance in contro- versial o?ciating, at least two revolu- tionary changes were made by the nor- mally tradition-bound league. The biggest was the introduction of replays, which was instigated in no small part by Paterno when he chased a@er referee Dick Honig following a 42-35 overtime loss to Iowa at Beaver Stadium in 2002. Then there was the =rst game against Michigan on Oct. 16, 1993, at Beaver Sta- dium when the game o?cials threatened to penalize Penn State because its crowd was too loud. That rule was eliminated by the league the next season. Ah yes, memorable moments in the Big Ten. A@er more than 20 years in the Big Ten, there have been many memorable moments, good and bad, on the =eld an o> it. Blue White Illustrated publisher Phil Grosz was thinking about those moments, too, a@er the sanctions were removed, and he asked this writer to compile a list of the 10 best Big Ten moments on and o> the =eld. BWI editor Matt Herb and I thought we should double that =gure to 20. Some are not really moments at all, given that they play out over weeks and months, but others did place on a single date. They are presented here in chrono- logical order. SEPTEMBER 1994-JANUARY 1995 This is a season of magic featuring one of the most proficient offenses in the history of college football leading to an unde- feated season, a Big Ten championship and a Rose Bowl victory in only the foot- ball team's second year in the conference. Four moments stand out: the 31-24 win at Michigan on Oct. 15 thanks to a late- fourth-quarter 16-yard touchdown pass from Kerry Collins to Bobby Engram that vaults the Lions to No. 1 in the polls; the 63-14 rout of Ohio State in the Home- coming game two weeks later; the cold and rainy night at Illinois on Nov. 12 when Penn State rallies from a stunning 21-0 first-quarter deficit and then drives 96 yards on 14 plays against an out- standing defense in the last six minutes to win, 35-31, and clinch the Big Ten title; and the 38-20 victory over Oregon in the Rose Bowl symbolized forever by Ki-Jana Carter's 83-yard run for a touch- down on Penn State's first possession. A record five players earn first-team All- America honors, with Carter and Collins canceling each other out in the Heisman Trophy voting. Collins still wins the Maxwell (player of the year) and Davey O'Brien (quarterback of the year) awards, and Engram earns the first Biletnikoff Award as the nation's best receiver. How- ever, the euphoria of the season is ulti- mately marred by the No. 2 ranking in the polls and the voters' season-long bias in favor of Nebraska. NOV. 16-18, 1995 In a game that would I MOMENTS OF TRUTH BWI revisits the highlights of the Big Ten era | HISTORY

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