Wednesday Reading Room -- Penn State putting on a Fiesta Bowl blitz

Penn State's people aren't sitting quietly in the Alleghenies, hoping to get a BCS bowl bid but resisting the temptation to do some politicking.

Nay, the Nittany Lions are getting knee-deep in trying to state their case to bowl representatives and any media who may matter, if such a thing exists.

Mike Poorman of Statecollege.com lays it out here. Excerpts:

Over the past few days, Joe Paterno has been working the phones, talking to representatives from as many as five different bowls. . . .

Penn State is trying to tilt the scales in its favor. In addition to Paterno's personal telephone calls, the PSU promotions people have been preaching the Penn State gospel to media and bowl reps alike. In that vein, Guido D'Elia, the branding czar for Nittany Lion football, has overseen the production of a two-minute, 22-second video touting that “Our Fans Love” bowls, “Follow” (to bowl games), “Watch” bowl games and “Take their bowls seriously.”

So who is this Guido D'Elia? Take a look here at this 2006 story to find out. This is what college football has become. A passage:

D'Elia's philosophy is to point out the things unique to Penn State and emphasize them. Hard work. Loyalty. Winning with honor. Sacrifice. Doing things the right way. Doing things the Penn State way. Because of D'Elia, old school is suddenly cool. Penn State has become the hip place to play. It's no coincidence the Nittany Lions have experienced two of the greatest recruiting classes back to back the past two years.

Here is a 2005 New York Times story on D'Elia.

D'Elia is responsible for gopsf.com. Take a look. It's a good site, a treasure trove of video. Penn State is steeped in football tradition, but it isn't stuck in the past.

If Iowa hasn't been putting on a marketing blitz of its own with bowl folks to try to snare a BCS bowl berth away from the fellow 10-2 team that it beat in Happy Valley, someone in Iowa City is asleep on the job.

But about the Fiesta Bowl ... I've seen a lot of quotes from its chairman, John Junker,

the last couple of weeks. My hat's off to Junker. He is a perfect bowl leader, always saying the right thing.

For instance, this was his comment to the Lincoln Journal Star about the possibility of Nebraska playing in his game, which will happen if the Cornhuskers stun Texas Saturday in the Big 12 title game:

“We've talked about it a lot. It would be a thrill to have the Cornhuskers. They're really a part of our whole heritage. We owe a lot to the University of Nebraska.”

Sure, the Fiesta Bowl wants a three-loss Nebraska team that isn't even in the Top Ten (but surely would be with a win Saturday). Then again, the Huskers would bring no less prestige than a 10-2 Iowa or 10-2 Penn State, and probably just as many fans.

If the Fiesta is saddled, er, blessed with Nebraska, it would be interesting to see if they went for a Big Ten team or Boise State as the Cornhuskers' opposition. My bet would be unbeaten Boise. Nobody wants to see Nebraska-Iowa outside of, well, Nebraska and Iowa.

But Texas will defeat Nebraska. So never mind.

There's no new ground broken in the interview Tom Dienhart of The Sporting News got with Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz (click here to see it), but Ferentz gets off a couple of good lines. Like this when asked the annual Ferentz-to-the-NFL rumors:

I'm sure they will start again at some point. In '07, I guess they were trying to send me to Canada. If those rumors persist, great. I get a kick out of it.

Most of Ferentz's comments are serious, however. Like this:

Everyone asks why I've been at Iowa so long or why I like coaching at Iowa; it's because if things get screwed up here, there's only one person I can blame.

With the firing of former New England Patriots offensive coordinator Charlie Weis as Notre Dame's head coach, the blog Sports of Boston asks if Patriots coach Bill Belichick is a bad mentor.

Ferentz, who was Belichick's offensive line coach with the Cleveland Browns for a while in the 1990s, has fared better as a head coach than several of Belichick's ex-assistants, as the blog's story elaborates.

As one of the Bill Parcells disciples to find success in the NFL, it is reasonable to expect that Belichick's understudies would carry on the tradition, but so far Romeo Crennel and Eric Mangini have struggled in stints as head coaches and Charlie Weis, another high profile New England leaf on the tree has fumbled at Notre Dame. Josh McDaniels is in his rookie season as a head coach and is currently struggling after an impressive 6-0 start to his coaching career. Jim Schwartz is also in his first year as the Lions Head Coach.

The college branch of his coaching tree seems to be finding more success and, interestingly, shared time with Belichick outside of New England, with the largely anonymous Cleveland Browns tenure. Belichick and Company were 36-44 with only one playoff appearance in five seasons, as a Wild Card in 1994, the only season his Browns even exceed the .500 mark. Kirk Ferentz, Al Groh, Pat Hill, and Nick Saban all worked under Belichick and now steer Division I programs.

Iowa is 9th or 10th in all this week's major polls. That's the football team, not the 2-5 men's basketball squad.

But Las Vegas Sports Consultants, with no need or use for biases, has the Hawkeyes . . . 22nd! It's not based on won-lost records, but on how strong LVSC sees each team. Its top 30:

Rank    Team    LVSC Rate    Previous Rank    BCS

1    Florida    121.8    1    1

2    Texas    120.2    2    3

3    Texas Christian    116.7    4    4

4    Alabama    116.4    3    2

5    Oregon    113.8    5    7

6    Ohio State    112.1    6    8

7    Boise State    111.5    7    6

8    Penn State    110.5    11    11

9    Cincinnati    110.4    9    5

10    Oklahoma    110.2    10    NR

11    Georgia Tech    110.0    10    10

12    Virginia Tech    109.9    15    12

13    Southern Cal    109.4    16    18

14    Texas Tech    109.3    16    NR

14    LSU    109.3    13    13

16    Clemson    109.1    13    NR

17    Miami    108.7    22    17

17    Stanford    108.7    18    24

19    Nebraska    108.6    18    22

20    Arkansas    108.5    22    NR

21    Mississippi    108.4    12    NR

22    Iowa    108.2    21    9

23    Pittsburgh    108.1    22    15

24    Oregon State    107.6    25    16

25    Oklahoma State    107.3    20    20

26    Arizona    107.2    26    NR

27    Tennessee    106.5    28    NR

28    Brigham Young    106.1    26    14

29    California    106.0    29    19

30    Georgia    105.8    NR 31    NR

Next Ten: West Virginia (23 BCS), Connecticut, Utah (25 BCS), Nevada, Wisconsin, Missouri, Michigan State, South Carolina, Boston College and Houston (21 BCS).

I didn't make it to the Virginia Tech-Iowa basketball game Tuesday night. Did Carver-Hawkeye Arena look anything like this shot from the Duquesne-Iowa game two weeks earlier?

You don't need to answer. I saw the game on ESPN2.