The following article, a front-page story by Walt Frank in today’s Altoona Mirror, is entirely too funny. It seems that despite having sold out its home football games for decades, Penn State is suddenly having trouble filling the stands. For instance, this past Saturday’s game against Temple drew just over 101,000 fans. Impressive. However, Beaver Stadium’s capacity is 107,282.

Penn State’s sudden inability to sell out Beaver Stadium would be entertaining in and of itself, given that Pitt just sold out all of its season tickets for the first time in years. However, Penn State’s official spin on the problem is perhaps even funnier. Get a load of this.

Penn State University officials say the events of September 11, 2001, may be one reason the university has been finding it more difficult to fill Beaver Stadium, the university’s 107,282-seat football stadium. “For the last two seasons, college football programs across the country have noticed that fans have not been traveling… as in the past,” said Bud Meredith, Penn State Athletics ticket manager. “There are several factors. Some of it is still the after-effects of 9-11. Some of it is the economy.”

Apparently the after-effects of 9-11 and the ailing economy are being felt more by Penn State fans than by Ohio State or Iowa fans.

While Penn State officials say they are seeing a decline, that does not seem to be the case at Ohio State, which captured the NCAA football championship in 2002. “Our fans are traveling. We almost always use about all of our allotment for away games,” said Steve Snapp, Sports Information Director and Assistant Athletic Director… Snapp said Buckeye fans will fill half of the stadium when Ohio State travels to Indiana October 25. Fans of the University of Iowa, coming off of an 11-2 season in 2002, also are traveling in large numbers.

Hmmm… I wonder what Ohio State and Iowa have in common that they don’t share with Penn State? I suppose that winning a lot of games recently may be a part of it. But who knows? Bud Meredith has another, particularly interesting, answer.

Penn State, which always has been known as one of the best “traveling” schools among college football teams, also is seeing a decline in the number of fans traveling to away games. The change from playing an independent schedule, which included many eastern teams, to joining the Big Ten in 1993 has played a factor. “I think going into the Big Ten had an impact on traveling; the closest game is Ohio State, and it is about 6.5 hours away,” Meredith said. “It is not like in the old days when you could just hop in the car and drive to Pittsburgh, West Virginia, or Temple.”

I liked this answer because it implies that Penn State is paying a financial price for refusing to play the likes of Pitt and West Virginia. Furthermore, I genuinely wanted to believe it. However, I can’t. Penn State has been in the Big Ten for ten years now. They never had trouble selling out either their home games or their allotment of away tickets before. If Lion fans didn’t mind traveling to Iowa City in the late 1990s, why should they mind now?

The difference is most likely just winning. Penn State is finally paying a price at the box office for losing so often on the football field, just as Pitt is finally reaping the rewards for winning more often.

I try not to gloat too hard at Penn State’s apparent misfortune, because I remember how embarrassed I used to be at the far, far smaller crowds in Pitt Stadium during the early 1990s. However, all of the taunts that I’ve heard over the years from Lion fans regarding Pitt’s inability to sell out makes it hard. I am hardly a saint.

Hail to Pitt’s Taking Full Advantage of its Sold Out Home in 2003.

Last Wednesday, I picked four games against the spread on this site. They were the games that I was most interested in this week. Unfortunately for anyone who may not have wanted a “Matt Hayes wannabe” on this site (see Chas’s comment under here), I went 3-1. My only loss? My other school, my beloved Buckeyes. Let’s review these vital games, as well as one additional game…

(Washington (+9) at Ohio State): The Buckeyes were more than OK without suspended tailback Maurice Clarett. They were dominant, crushing Washington 28-9. Maurice Hall, Lydell Ross, and Craig Krenzel were just as good of a rushing attack as Clarett, if not better. And any one of ABC’s 300 close-up shots of Clarett patrolling the sidelines showed that he knew it (incidentally, the game highlight was clearly Keith Jackson’s chastising the media for running the Clarett scandal into the ground as ABC’s camera’s zoomed in on Clarett and continued to do so, over and over again, all game long). The Buckeyes strong passing game was a nice addition, although not nearly as smooth as Pitt’s will probably be.

In any case, I, like the Associated Press and most of ESPN’s analysts, overestimated the effect that losing Clarett would have and decided that Ohio State would not cover. Damn. Now we’ll see how the Buckeyes do against a much stronger North Carolina State team in two weeks.

(Wisconsin (-3) at West Virginia): I was genuinely rooting for the Mountaineers here. West Virginia, Pitt, Syracuse, and Boston College (we’ll talk about you losers later) need to win every out-of-conference game that they can in order to guarantee the Big East’s inclusion in the BCS after Miami and Virginia Tech leave. And the Mountaineers looked like they were going to pull off the upset for most of this game. But then Wisconsin’s high-octane rushing and passing attack scored 17 unanswered points and pulled out the win: 24-17. I predicted that the Badgers would cover, but only because I thought that WVU was overrated. I’m not so sure about WVU’s being overrated now.

And one more thing… your new home uniforms suck, hoopies. The Denver Broncos’s side stripes have been done to death. Plus, road sign yellow is not the better of your colors.

(Southern California (+4) at Auburn): Damn, were me and my boy Trev Alberts right about Auburn’s being overrated or what? USC 23-0.

Incidentally, I’m watching the 8:00 AM edition of College Gameday Final as I write this. Trev Alberts was entirely too smug about his being right — and Mark May’s being wrong — about Auburn. I can’t stand being on that a-hole’s side for once.

(Temple (+24.5) at Penn State): I said that PSU wouldn’t cover because of the extent to which the Lions are rebuilding this year. But even I was surprised at how much rebuilding they have to do. I mean, only being able to get ahead of Temple 7-3 by halftime? Only beating them by 13 (23-10) in the end? And if not for a few key mistakes by the Owls, this would have been a lot closer.

Of course, the Lions can easily recover from this — just as Ohio State recovered from barely beating Cincinnati last year. But what’s so chilling is how the Central PA media is portraying this win in such a largely positive light. You barely beat Temple, fer chrissakes. (Incidentally, this is even more chilling.)

By the way, the College Gameday Final crew agrees with my assessment of Oregon’s “lightening” yellow uniforms. And I would like to make a second nomination for “The Oregon Award.” The University of Illinois and their all-orange uniforms. Appalling. Especially for a Big Ten team.

Finally, my additional game. I would like to especially thank the Boston College Eagles for laying down at home and giving up 20 points in the 4th quarter to let their underdog opponent and proud ACC member, Wake Forest, walk all over them. Way to stand up for the integrity of the Big East Conference and its loyal members, guys. We’re guaranteed to keep our slot in the BCS now. At least West Virginia tried. And at least UConn beat a Big Ten team… albeit the conference whipping-boy Indiana.

Hail to St. Mary’s Byzantine Catholic Church’s haluski, clearly the best food of Johnstown Folkfest 2003. And hail to old steel towns who have never torn down their steel mills. Young Pittsburghers have to drive to Johnstown to see what their town once looked like.