No Penn State players at Big Ten media days this week -- they're all hosting Illinois coaches in State College

Each Big Ten team brings three players to the annual conference football media days in Chicago. This year's event starts tomorrow. But without three players from Penn State.

It's not that the Nittany Lions don't have three players left on the roster. They issued a solidarity statement that you can watch right here:

The school and conference understood those three players would be bombarded with questions that wouldn't be entirely comfortable, like "Who has contacted you about transferring?" and "What do you think of your former head coach now?"

So, the wise and correct move was to leave them behind. Especially since one is running back Silas Redd, who supposedly has heard from USC about maybe, you know, giving Los Angeles life a try.

Let's face it. Upperclassmen will stay, by and large. So will some others. Some recruits won't de-commit.

But a lot of players are going to leave Penn State behind. They just will, and they can't be faulted a bit for it. Part of the school's recruiting pitch to them was the chance to, you know, play for a winner. That's not going to happen for them there after the NCAA's whip came down Monday. It just won't.

It's been reported that Illinois sent six football coaches to State College to "initiate discussions" with Penn State players. That is, of course, gross. It only adds more juice to the argument many have been making in light of the Penn State scandal. Which is, basically, big-time college football needs an exorcist.