Who wants to be a millionaire: JoePa

This is as surprising as someone revealing that Rush Limbaugh is fat:

Records released Friday by the university show the 82-year-old Hall of Famer is Penn State's highest-paid employee, making more than $1.03 million last year.

That includes his base salary plus any bonuses, but does not include compensation from outside the university that top coaches typically collect. Paterno's compensation from other sources is not a public record.

We've long speculated that Mr. Paterno (will be fine thank you very much) made much less than the top college football coaches and here we have empirical evidence. Sure, he probably makes a boat-load of money from endorsement deals but what big-name coach doesn't? The point is Paterno makes less than 1/3 of the nation's highest paid coaches Les Miles and Nick Saban (3.8 M) and let's face it, would Nittany Nation be proud of the recruiting tactics that Saban has displayed? Yeah, we'll take that old guy in a heartbeat, we still have a soul.

Now that we know does this change anything, people? Not for me, but hey, thanks to the lawyers for bringing this to light.

Paterno's salary was once one of college football's most closely-guarded secrets until his base salary of roughly $500,000 was made public two years ago as part of an open records request of state retirement data initiated by the Patriot News of Harrisburg.

Oh, the good old Harrisburg Patriot, collecting your puppy's droppings since 1986. Hope the money spent to get this info helps you guys sell papers.*

More fun with numbers:

Men's basketball coach Ed DeChellis made more than $642,000.

Of other salaries released, five were for officers of the university and therefore paid mostly from public funding or tuition. That includes president Graham Spanier, who made $590,000.

So Spanier makes almost as much as the Men's Basketball coach, interesting indeed. I would say that a half Mil isn't that much to pay for a major university president but 600 Grand is really really cheep for a big time university basketball coach. I think in Paterno's and DeChellis' case we have a very good bargain.

*not really I hope you go bankrupt for this obvious attempt at publicity.

MWC commissioner wants you to believe the Yeti exist

Or he might as well because you'll have about as much chance of seeing one as you would an eight team playoff in college football. MWC commissioner Craig Thompson proposed a playoff to the other BCS commissioners in a meeting Tuesday.

Thompson's fellow BCS commissioners listened Tuesday morning to his proposal for an eight-team playoff and other changes to the current system. They agreed to take the proposal back to their respective memberships for their spring meetings. They will reconvene in June in Colorado Springs.

The MWC's proposal not only would create a playoff, it would scrap the use of polls and computers in the BCS rating in favor of a committee that would select and seed 10 teams. The bottom two would play in a "BCS bowl" and the others would play for the national championship. The proposal also wants to recalibrate the revenue sharing.

The other commissioners agreeing to "discuss" the playoff is largely ceremonial in that they will take it back to their respective conferences, laugh about it, and roll around in their heaping piles of money they get from the current BCS system. Having said that, I have to admit Thompson did the right thing, instead of trying to change the system a little bit (see: Plus-One format) he proposes broad radical change including throwing out the God-awful BCS rating system and polls for a 12 person selection committee. If you are going to fight the system, nudging it isn't the way to make change you have to hit it with a sledge hammer. Hopefully this radical idea will at least get BCS commissioners thinking. Before you argue with me about the selection committee idea bringing up Penn State's snub by the NCAA basketball selection committee (don't go there) I'm not saying it's the right idea but it at least is something. Anything. But like I said, you'll probably have a better chance of seeing this guy:

Champs!

Sure it was just the NIT, but it's still a national tournament title and a huge step for this Penn State basketball program. No one play could epitomize what this team has endured this season other than Danny Morrissey's face first dive for a loose ball. It ended Morrissey's night prematurely but it demonstrated the kind of fight this team had and has had all season long. Special thanks to Morrissey, Jamelle Cornley, and Stanley Pringle for helping Penn State turn the corner. PSU is no longer just a football school.

While the players deserve a lot of the credit, I've always been an Ed DeChellis fan; he's done a great job through a lot of hard work and long days and it's finally paying off for him. Congrats Penn State, we are… champs!

Just Because Tis The Season

Penn State is hosting George Mason in the NIT tonight, Happy St. Patrick's Day. Time to get my Irish on. Most have spent the last 2 days bitching why the Nittany Lions aren't in the NCAA Tournament. Granted, Mike Slive gave the most bullshit argument for Arizona's inclusion, possibly the finest work of a talking asshole since Ace Ventura, see Kevin's fine work over at BSD for actual stats and stuff for those that don't really follow the nuances of college basketball and need an explanation as the why. Regardless, from this point on, I'm putting an end to the whining about the schedule. I know, it wasn't great, but it's not what kept the team out of the Tournament. Stop crying the schedule is too weak! The schedule is too weak? The fucking schedule is too weak? You're weak! The season ended up hinging on 2 games and the team didn't come through, that's it, plain and simple. The season slipped away losing to Rhode Island, thus missing an opportunity to play Villanova, and closing out the regular season losing to Iowa. Penn State plays 'Nova instead of Towson, there's your strength of schedule out the window or conversely beats Iowa, locks up number 2 seed in the Big Ten and punches their ticket. Unfortunately, they've been inconsistently great and that's been the problem (that and free throw shooting). Celebrate the year and the team and stop crying.

P.S. ESPN can take ESPNU and shove it up their ass, no one gets your shitty offspring network. Put the worthless play-in game on it. Sláinte!

There was a game last night?

Talor Battle for president.

If the impassioned speech by Darryl Clark or the gutsy nationally televised effort didn't say it, Talor Battle's basket certainly did.

The Penn State men's basketball team belongs in the NCAA tournament.

The sophomore Battle made the biggest shot of his collegiate career, a layup with .3 seconds remaining to lift Penn State to an improbable 64-63 win against No. 23-ranked Illinois in front of white-wearing frenzied fans at the Bryce Jordan Center.

Grainy YouTube video in 3…2…1…

Oh by the way Illini fans… Remember this?

2-0, suck on it pricks!