The Daily Collegian
Outback t jwl wins, regardless of result
By Andrew J. Cassavell
Jim McVav is grinning from
ear to ear. Never mind the
Outback Bowl president has
two 7-5 teams
coming off
extremely disap
pointing seasons
playing at his
New Year's Day
State and Florida
take the field MY OPINION
Jan. 1. it's a pair
of tradition-rich football programs
with massive fan bases. To
MeVay. that can mean only one
thing: dollars. Lots of them.
"We are thrilled with the
matchup." MeVay said on
Monday's bowl teleconference.
"We can't think of two teams that
we are more proud of to have in
our game than the Gators and the
Nittany Lions.'
MeVav's decision to select
Men’s volleyball ready for Hawaiian opener
By Joe Mclntyre
While most students are
trudging around campus during
syllabus w eek in sub-freezing tern
peralures. the Penn State men's
volleyball team will be enjoying tin
degree weather in Hawaii.
For tie 1 lourth straight season,
the Nittam Lions will begin their
season in Honolulu. Hawaii for the
Outrigger Invitational. Each of the
teams they piay were ranked In
the final AYCA Division I L top lb
rankings No ft LOLA. No. i
Hawaii and No 14 Ball State
The Lions won the tournament
two straight seasons from 200 i)
2000 but tailed to make it a triteeta
last veer, losing to Southern
Californio m the team's opening
game
Sinee these games are the
Nittam Lions' hist regular season
matchups, coach .Mark Pavtlk said
the team plans on using the tour
namenf as a measuring stick to
see where it stands against some
good opponents early in tin' sea
son.
1 want to see where we re at
Pavlik said
It's one thing to be m the own
Flot i and Penn State for his
game just goes to show the entire
college football landscape is
shaped by dollars and cents
not just the BCS.
Take the jerseys aw ay and the
contest has no ring to it. No star
quarterback. No high ranking on
the line. No dominant defense.
Even the all-important confer
ence bragging rights won't be too
relevant in the game The
Outback Bowl is one of three New
Year's Day Big Ten-SEC
matchups - not including Jan.
4 s Sugar Bow ! pitting Ohio State
and Arkansas.
Mix the Gator Chomp with
Nittanv Nation, however, and
MeVay shouldn't see many empty
seals. Hidings will be high or
at least as high its they can get
for a bow l named after a steak
house.
That's why he chose the Lions
over the low a Hawkeyes. who
cruised against Penn State. 24-3.
Oct. 2 and finished the season
your own team-
even da;
nether thing to go
sotn.-pk.<v olid play Ohio State
and mix and match lineups. But
when i' and points go up on
the -i-i.ivqi >ou re looking for
r time with the
p.Th::-,;).,!!
nave been eompet
ivi \Viiit<- contests
i-'n'.lav afternoon.
White !iu■ i.inn' nad a tew scrini
inaue- ni iv, ;wceii. rocMiirt jiinior
Itn- >!'iii|t 1 aid k> niltieult to get
a i!i( learn w hen it
lin.-t a-)];-her oppo-
l LM )i)(!
(i< >('<!! ! !)Ki'
p;a\ West Coast
ad "So we've
i.i o ot that and
st o' player is in
v '.earn, but also
ic, : a. compete."
uc ilu- ciHioeui'iis United
S'au - a,] f'iav. ,ii; is something
r')H' i; P.okk s;mi the Lions have
S.i'.tj The older
been ii. -nu;
pla.vi.T-. on >!a■ tram haw gotten
a. trip and the younger
oi; h..Vo no choice but to
a', cilia; nearlv .j.ttOO
mHc- aw,!'. iua\ ><.-<'iii more diffi-
SPORTS
with the same record. But that
decision is at least justifiable from
a football standpoint. lowa strug
gled in November, losing its final
three games. South Carolina, on
the other hand, won its final three
regular season games in an
impressive run to the SEC east
crown. Forget the Gamecocks'
blowout loss to Auburn last
Saturday. Less than a month ago.
they went to The Swamp and wal
loped the Gators by 22 points.
Nonetheless, it's Florida-Penn
State in the Outback Bowl, while
the Gamecocks and Hawkeyes.
who were relegated to pre-New
Year's Day bowl games, will be
sitting home watching.
"We re not trying to put on a
national championship here,"
Outback Bowl representative
Mike Schulze said earlier this
week. "We have two teams that
don't traditionally get to play each
other ... On local TV sets and on
TV sets all over on New Year's
Day people will be excited."
cult that playing a much closer
opponent. Pavlik said it's the exact
opposite.
"We go to Fort Wayne and
we re on the bus for eight or nine
hours," Pavlik said.
"We travel, we’re on the plane
for eight or nine hours, you get off
and you're in Honolulu. Do the
math on where you'd rather be
getting off at."
While the majority of Penn
State students will be wearing
winter coats, scarves and boots,
the volleyball team will be turning
all that in for swim trunks, sun
glasses and sandals.
Coach Pavlik said the team will
arrive in Honolulu the evening of
Jan. 11 and have practice the next
morning.
The team will leave the rest of
the day to enjoy the sandy beach
es of the island instead of the
snowy sidewalks of the valley.
got manv
"We ll be mainly going to the
beach, doing a little sightseeing
and stuff like that," sophomore
Kyle Mars said. "Maybe see some
of the mountains, you know, get a
taste of what life is like over there
in Hawaii."
To e-mail reporter: jrms4ol@psu.edu
“We have two teams that don’t traditionally get
to play each other ... On local TV sets and on
TV sets all over on New Year’s Day, people will
be excited.”
And those people likely won't
be disappointed with a game that
will likely be dose because both
teams are so similar not nec
essarily because they have much
talent.
Penn State and Florida each
rank in the top-15 of all-time win
ningest programs, and both have
been featured prominently in the
BCS recently. Joe Paterno has the
chance to capture his 25th bowl
victory against a Florida program
he has vet to beat and a coach
with similar success winning per
centage-wise in bowl games.
And Wednesday's announce-
Joe Sunder (back) goes for the kill against Springfield last season
Friday, Dec. 10, 2010 I
Mike Schulze
Outback Bowl representative
ment that Florida coach Urban
Meyer will retire after the game
was McVay's proverbial cherry on
top.
Come game time, there w'on't
be much rooting interest in
McVay's suite. The head man at
the Outback Bowl already got
exactly what he wanted.
Whatever else happens at
Raymond James Stadium on Jan.
1 is just icing on the cake.
Andrew J. Cassavell is a senior majoring
in journalism and is a Daily Collegian
football reporter. His e-mail address is
ajcs23B@psu.edu