Blue White Illustrated

Tide's loss made this the =rst season since 2005 in which an SEC team didn't play for the crown. Do two games constitute a trend? Ob- viously not. Eight SEC teams were ranked in the Rivals.com recruiting top 20 as of mid-January, so anyone waiting for Alabama to slip back into the post- Bryant funk of the 1980s or for Auburn or LSU or Georgia to fade away is most likely going to be waiting a long, long time. The SEC is not exactly headed to- ward irrelevance. But it is about to get a heck of a chal- lenge. With Ohio State probably set to compete for national championships for the duration of Urban Meyer's stay in Columbus, and Michigan and Penn State on the rise, it's looking more and more as though the Big Ten deserves a spot on Franklin's list of conferences that matter. That's a fortuitous bit of timing for the second-year Penn State coach, as he'll be able to continue talking to recruits about the perks of playing in a nationally respected conference in which he just so happens to be coaching. And make no mistake, the Big Ten is =- nally starting to earn the national respect it was being denied as recently as Dec. 28, when Baylor defensive end (and for- mer Penn State player) Shawn Oakman told a TV reporter previewing the Bears' Cotton Bowl matchup with Michigan State that he didn't watch Big Ten foot- ball because "it's not interesting." A@er Ohio State thrashed Oregon, 42- 20, for the 2014 title, it took less than 24 hours for the Westgate SuperBook to an- noint the Buckeyes 9-2 favorites to win the 2015 crown. It's tough to argue with the logic behind that choice. The biggest question Meyer faces heading into the o?-season is whether he can keep three Heisman-worthy quarterbacks happy, which is a nice problem to have. Meanwhile, Michigan put together a contract worth more than $40 million over seven years to lure Jim Harbaugh back to the college game a@er a four- year stint in San Francisco, during which he led the 49ers to the NFC Champi- onship Game three times and to the Su- per Bowl once. Harbaugh, who went 29- FACILITIES Plans in place to renovate Lasch The Lasch Building is set to receive a privately financed $12 million makeover aimed at transforming the Nittany Li- ons' football headquarters into a state- of-the-art, digitally enhanced facility that, according to the project's docu- mentation, will "support Penn State's mission as a premier institution and athletics program." Penn State's focus will be on the locker and equipment rooms, the head coach's office, staff meeting room and nutrition bar. Sketches of the proposed renova- tions show smooth-surfaced white locker stalls with helmets on pedestals beneath what appear to be thin horizon- tal video screens. The documents state that one of the primary goals is to create "media-rich experiences" that communicate the program's history and tradition. The ap- proach, project planners say, "should be to inspire current student athletes and recruits by showing past success." At its Jan. 15 meeting, Penn State's board of trustees recommended that Populous Kansas City helm the con- struction project. The concept designs for the renova- tion project were created by Crawford Architects of Kansas City and Advent of Nashville. Penn State looked to several other schools for inspiration, including Ore- gon, Texas A&M and Oklahoma State. Construction is tentatively set to begin in December and will continue through June 2016. FIXER-UPPER Renderings of the Nittany Lions' new locker and equipment rooms feature video screens aimed at creating what project planners call "media-rich ex- periences." > >

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