Tuesday Reading Room -- Do Penn State's TV numbers counter Iowa's bodies in the stadium?

Some of you aren't going to want to read the following. (That's a cheap way of getting you to read it. Who can resist?)

But David Jones of the Harrisburg (Pa.) Patriot-News has a lot of numbers that support why the Orange Bowl might be persuaded to snap up Penn State for its game if it gets the chance.

That's irrelevant if the Fiesta Bowl selects Iowa with its first pick on Dec. 6, of course, because the Fiesta picks an at-large team before the Orange this year. No conference can have more than one at-large BCS selection.

Nonetheless, here's some of what Jones wrote, data that might be telling given that television ratings are part of big bowls' selection criteria:

• ... here are a few TV numbers for the three combined Iowa and Penn State BCS bowls. Since the BCS system began in 1998, a total of 47 BCS bowl games have been played counting the stand-alone national title game created just three years ago.

Of those 47 bowls:

The post-2005 Orange Bowl between Penn State and Florida State ranks No. 20 in viewership with a 12.3 rating. That also ranks No. 9 among the 36 non-title games.

Rose Bowls traditionally are the ratings kings among non-title BCS bowls. And that PSU-FSU Orange Bowl drew more viewers than all but two non-title, non-Rose games. The only ones more popular were the post-'05 Fiesta (Notre Dame-Ohio State) and the post-'00 Sugar (Florida-Miami).

Among only BCS-era Orange Bowls, PSU-FSU ranks No. 3 behind only a pair of national title games – the post-'00 Oklahoma upset of Florida State (17.8) and the post-'04 Southern California rout of Oklahoma (13.7).

The post-2008 Rose Bowl last year between Penn State and Southern California ranked right behind at No. 21 with a 12.1 rating.

The post-2002 Orange Bowl between Iowa and Southern California ranked No. 29 with a 9.7 rating.

Of course, Iowa can present one very good, loud, clear counterpoint to that, and the Orange Bowl is vividly aware of it.

Namely, did you see how many Hawkeye fans were in Miami seven years ago for the Orange Bowl??????

The Fiesta Bowl would love to have Iowa, no question. In 12 days we'll know how much. Marc Morehouse of the Gazette said today in our office that he wouldn't be surprised if the Orange and Fiesta make a deal. I think Little Caesars Pizza Bowl should make one with the Papajohns.com Bowl.

The Orange Bowl more or less stuck it to the Rose Bowl seven years ago when it took USC and Iowa. But O.J. Simpson, a USC grad who was living near Miami at the time, liked it as this essay detailed.

What Jones had in his column that resonates the most, perhaps, was this:

... this from my friend, collegebcs.com guru Jerry Palm:

Jerry had not heard Joe Paterno's response to my question in the Michigan State post-game about how he intends to lobby for a BCS at-large bid for his team at the expense of its head-to-head conqueror Iowa.

“What do you want me to say? ‘Pick us! Pick us!' What else can I say?” Paterno answered theatrically.

“I appreciate everybody wanting to know. And if I could, I'd get on the phone and call some people and say, ‘You owe me. Or if not, you better watch out. There might be a horse's head in your bed.'”

Palm, who's a bit the lone wolf among pundits in predicting the Orange Bowl to take PSU over Iowa, cracked up when I read the quote to him. And then he said this:

“See, who's gonna get you 30 seconds on SportsCenter -- Kirk Ferentz or Joe Paterno? You know Joe's gonna say something funny or make you shake your head.

“Kirk Ferentz, I mean, nicest guy in the world, but he could walk down South Beach at night and the clubs would close.”

There is truth in that. Not the South Beach thing, of course. Ferentz would never go anywhere near there. It's a hedonistic parade, for crying out loud.

But Paterno does belong to America. No one needs an introduction to him. For that reason alone, Penn State is marketable even though it has a dull team for a 10-game winner and hasn't beaten anyone of BCS-bowl quality. (I heard you yesterday and today, Hawkeye fans. I not only heard you, I listened.)

But don't you know -- I mean, don't you absolutely know - that Iowa will give you a good and ferocious game no matter the opposition? Is that not documented by now? Penn State, Michigan State, Ohio State - those were all road games, stirring games, sometimes-wacky games.

How many nationally televised games this season -- I'm talking ABC, not ESPN2 -- were more interesting than Iowa-Ohio State?

What I'm wondering more than anything with three days before Boise State hosts Nevada

for the WAC title, is if the Fiesta would pass on taking the unbeaten Broncos. Some think it might. I can't see it. How do you leave a 12-0 team that travels well at home, especially a team that gave such a good account of itself at the Fiesta Bowl three years ago?

Wait, I forgot. This is the BCS.

And something else. What if Pittsburgh beats West Virginia (Friday in Morgantown) and Cincinnati (Dec. 5 in Pittsburgh) to get the Big East's BCS berth? Would a bowl try to set up Penn State-Pitt?

Nah.

Thanks to David Jones for basically writing this blog entry for me, by the way.

Now, a quick word on the Iowa-Texas basketball game last night.

It was a lot better than I thought it would be. For a while. But what does it mean for the rest of the season? The experience and depth may not be there, but at least the Hawkeyes don't seem intimidated. That's a start.

They weren't intimidated last season, either. That wasn't enough.

But Cully Payne sure is a pretty good shooter from 60 feet out.