Tennessee is a popular comparison as well for being just outside, very similar success as PS. All SEC programs have suffered a bit from sharing a room with the elephant.
Do you consider Penn State a blue blood in college football?
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Non-sense. Why are you stopping at 7? Why is Texas a blue blood? I would put Nebraska before Texas. Sure they are sliding but amazing history overall. PSU is next, probably 8. Would you stop at 7 for b-ball?
Duke
UNC
Kentucky
UCLA
Kansas
UConn
Villanova
I guess Indiana is no longer a blue blood? I still think that they are, maybe MSU and Syracuse as well. Top 10 are usually blue bloods and PSU certainly is for fball
Agree with this. We've been consistently relevant for 60+ years. Top-10 in most of the right categories such as wins, winning %, AP poll appearances, etc.
Lack of titles ensures we're not in the "elite" tier, but I think we're safely a top-10 program.
In order:
Bama and Ohio State at the very top.
Then Michigan, Oklahoma, USC, ND in that next grouping.
Then Texas, Penn State, Nebraska.
Then the likes of Tennessee, UGA, LSU, etc.
The writer of the book in the attached link obviously believes that LSU is a blue blood program. I safely can say that if LSU is a blue blood program, then PSU definitely is.
I don't think there is any question Penn State is a blue blood. JoePa got us into that club.
I think Georgia is and I could agree LSU is. What about Auburn or Florida or Florida State?
I base the label of "blue blood" in any sport on sustained level of success, championships and, in football, bowl games won, individual award winners, and, most importantly, whether a certain program's status has transcended to a brand based on attendance, fan following, cultural relevance and regional and/or national importance. That's why under any meaure, PSU deserves that label in football. Paterno definitely transformed the PSU program into something more than just a college football program, but also gave it cultural significance, which is reflected in stuff like the Cappelletti movie, PSU being referenced in other football movies, Paterno being named SI Sportsman of the Year, etc. Essentially, Paterno did for PSU what Coach K did for Duke, and there's nobody who would deny that Duke is a blue blood in basketball.
Based on the above, I believe that FSU is close, but they really only became relevant in the early 80s, but they have won National Championships and had a lot of major award winners. Florida also is close, but they really didn't become a consistent major player until the early 90s when Spurrier took over. IMO, Auburn is behind both FSU and Florida, and still is a long way away from being given that label.
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Penn State has four national titles as recognized by the NCAA. 1911 and 1912 in addition to 1982 and 1986.
College football championship history
Here is a comprehensive list of every college football champion from 1869 to the present day.
www.ncaa.com
Michigan State, Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa have more. It is a long list of teams with more titles. That is what excludes PS from being a blueblood.Penn State has four national titles as recognized by the NCAA. 1911 and 1912 in addition to 1982 and 1986.
College football championship history
Here is a comprehensive list of every college football champion from 1869 to the present day.
Michigan has won a grand total of two National Championships since 1947. Texas has won a grand total of one National Championship since 1970. Oklahoma has won two National Championships since 1985. Ohio State has won two National Championships since 1968. ND has won a grand total of one National Championship since 1977. Therefore, based on your own argument, they shouldn't be included.
In another world, PSU can claim National Championships in 1968, 1969, 1973, 1982, 1986 and 1994 as well as several others many years previously, and also played for it in 1978 and 1985. You talk as if every one of these schools wins National Championships in every decade, which simply isn't true.
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Good, then include them too. I know that when I think about college football, I place all of those schools ahead of PSU in the pecking order, as probably most of the country. You probably should include Carnegie Tech, Chicago, Bucknell, Lafayette and Lehigh ahead of them too, as well Yale, Harvard and Princeton. Good God!
Fine, remove Michigan, Texas, Oklahoma and Ohio State. Make it just Alabama, Notre Dame and USC, that is exclusive enough. Just 2 poll era titles under a single coach aint gonna make that cut.
You can claim those other years but that does not make it so. Other programs have had similar years with no title. I hear UCF claims one as well.
Look at PSU TV ratings and that proves - they are followed in a National basis = Blue Blood en dod story!
While we definitely have a valid case for 1969 and 1994, hard to argue that we were the best team (or even top-2) in 1968 or 1973.
We played one ranked team in 1968, and won by a point. We didn't play a ranked team in 1973 until late November. Our 1980s champions played brutal schedules, but those early Paterno teams didn't.
Other programs can make similar claims. Notre Dame can make a reasonable claim for 1993. Ohio State could make as valid a claim for 1996 as we could for 1968-69-73-94. Miami could make a claim for 2000. Auburn for 2004. And so on.
2 titles -- none in the BCS era -- is what keeps us in that 8-10 range instead of higher. Still blue blood in my view, but not in that elite tier.
Joe put Penn State on the map. The man was brilliant.
The BoT thanked him by blowing diarrhetic butt on him.
The BoT thanked him by blowing diarrhetic butt on him.
This is a great assessment. Your points about JoePa are right on. I agree as I think about FSU, Florida, Auburn and even LSU. The way I think about it is you had to be a power at least in the 60's or certainly 70's. Then had sustainable staying power through the decades. Don't think any of those schools qualify, maybe LSU? Besides Alabama who else? Georgia?
You could look at who were making bowl games in the 60's and 70's because these were the elite teams given the limited bowls then out of these who kept winning or at least stayed relevant.
Teams like Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin may have been good in the 50's but they fell off the map by the late 60's and were dominated by the Big 2 for over a decade. Wisconsin was awful until the early 90's when Alvarez took over. So these schools fail due to not sustaining success.
Back in the 1980s when PSU and Bama played almost every season, that effectively was THE team of the North playing THE team of the South, such was the level to which PSU’s program had ascended by that time. I also forgot to mention the significance that the 1987 Fiesta Bowl had, which rose above just a normal football game; it became a cultural phenomenon. That game still has to be ranked as one of the all time most significant college football games for multiple reasons.
I think that a lot of posters on this board believe that college football began about a decade ago. Every program, including Bama and ND and USC and Michigan, have gone through and will ho through some down periods. PSU has been a major relevant factor in college football for the vast majority of the last 55 years, and really has had very few down periods during that time, God, even in the last seven full seasons, excluding 2020, it’s won 72 games. Also, if it hadn’t quit scholarship football for several years in the 1930s, it probably would be in the top five of all time wins rather than seventh among all D-1 schools, which is still exceptional.
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How many of those other blue bloods had 1 season they were undefeated and not named NC?
It is that reason alone to call BS on anyone saying we don't have enough NC's, or span enough decades with them
Wins, NC's, etc. Blueblood. How about Bowl game wins...when they used to matter?? Let's check in on those teams for that.
It is that reason alone to call BS on anyone saying we don't have enough NC's, or span enough decades with them
Wins, NC's, etc. Blueblood. How about Bowl game wins...when they used to matter?? Let's check in on those teams for that.
Alabama 1966. The fact that you don't know that tells us that your knowledge of CFB is limited. One head coach with 2 poll era titles in one decade. Not enough.
68' 69' 94' would make 7 blue blood territory.Penn State has four national titles as recognized by the NCAA. 1911 and 1912 in addition to 1982 and 1986.
College football championship history
Here is a comprehensive list of every college football champion from 1869 to the present day.
Gee, if only PSU had gone undefeated in those seasons, then it would've had a legitmate argument in those popularity contests, including 1973. Oh wait, they did go undefeated in those seasons, so perhaps PSU somehow could've done better than go undefeated.
By the way, PSU does recognize that the 1994 team did win the National Championship. Since it was unofficial back then, and PSU was deemed to be the National Champion by several sources, that's good enough for me.
If we had gotten s chance to play Nebraska for the NC that year it would have been epic. Not sure how well our D would have held up to their run game but we would have scored a good amount.
Nebraska would’ve been shell shocked to play an ultra elite multi-dimensional offense like PSU’s. Like every other team that PSU played that season, they never would’ve been able to match scores with that PSU team. That Nebraska team barely beat a good but not great Miami in the Orange Bowl.
Eh, that Nebraska defense was also better than any we played that year. They held an elite Colorado offense (with a great QB, great WR, and Heisman RB) to 7 points.
Kansas State that year was roughly on par with the best teams we beat (Michigan, OSU, USC). A 9-3 team. Nebraska went to KSU and only gave up 6.
The advantage Nebraska had was they beat a pair of legit top-5 teams. Colorado was probably the 3rd best team in the country that year, and Nebraska buried them.
Would have been a great game -- a real contrast in strengths. I'd go 27-24, Penn State.
Penn State was the best program in the country in 86 so folks can make of that what they will. Not sure how many programs can say they were the best program in the country and not because of one year but because of 20 years of success.
Getting screwed out of a NC in 94 was a hit to the program. We should have at least received a share for pummeling the BIG in our second year and beating our Rose Bowl opponent by 18 when our kids were told they had nothing to play for.
Throughout the rest of the 90s we were constantly in the top 5 but the BIG refs made sure we had too many hurdles to overcome. Penn State could put a montage together of horrendous officiating in big games that made those of us that lived through it literally nauseated. The BIG was a disgraceful, biased conference.
Now we have a talker and a guy who lets analytics coach his team instead of good old fashioned instincts and football knowledge. When we get in big games no one thinks Franklin will out coach the other guy.
Joe wasn't perfect as a coach. He didn't value scoring enough and he stayed too long and lost his edge.
That said he built this program into a juggernaut and I always thought we had the best coach in the business. And he was a tremendous recruiter in his day and there was a pride and love for Penn State football that was second to none.
Remember that that Colorado team won at Michigan on a last second Hail Mary pass. That Michigan team was pretty good. Also, that OSU team that PSU beat 63-14 was loaded with a lot of great players.
I just think that that PSU offense when at their best was going to score almost at will. Just look at what they did against a really good Illinois defense on the road when they woke up. If PSU’s defense just would’ve made Nebraska have to take a lot of time to score, they wouldn’t have been able to score enough to keep up with that PSU offense IMO, which almost was like a minor league NFL caliber offense with that great o-line and two Heisman finalists.
Penn State's offense at its best was an absolute machine. The problem is that the defense wore down as the year went on given injuries and whatnot. Peak PSU was that USC game, IMO. Although our performance against OSU in late October was about as good as it gets.
By January, I just don't know if we had the complete unit to dominate Nebraska. I'd still favor PSU in that matchup, but it would have been a fantastic game, IMO.
I think that we all can agree that it was a disgrace that Nebraska was considered to be the lone National Champion that season, even though the back of the Beaver Stadium scoreboard facing the street had “New York Times. National Champions” on it beginning in the 1995 season. This was especially grating because there were co-champs both in 1990, 1991 and 1997.
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No doubt about it. I'm perfectly fine claiming 1994 as a title team.
1994 and 1969 -- in that order -- were absolutely robbed and were definitely deserving of at least playing for a title. 1968 and 1973 less so. 1973 was such a loaded year with Notre Dame, Bama, and Ohio State at the top. We're probably next.
Dude. That is a comical response. I asked a question. You assumed I didn’t know the answer.
You can pick and choose about heavyweights, etc but 4 is 4. Alabama had 1 but the point isn’t that Alabam had 1. The point is there were 4. 4
How many coaches had 5 undefeated seasons? Rockne? Wilkinson? Saban, Bowden, Bryant?
PSU is one of the premier programs. Blue blood for sure. Wins, championships. Whatever
PSU football is clearly a second tier program. That said, PSU might be the best second tier program around, and given the last two years, one of the more consistent teams around.
Would love to see a break through, but if history is any indication, PSU can't seem to put it all together (witness last year). Kind of reminds me of my golf game.
Would love to see a break through, but if history is any indication, PSU can't seem to put it all together (witness last year). Kind of reminds me of my golf game.
Sounds like my golf game when I played. I never had driving, irons, and/or putting all doing well in the same round. I was lucky if one of the three was doing well.
Played on Friday. 3 pars, 4 bogies, and the rest "other.".....
First time this year though. Have some room for improvement.
Excellent chart. Notice the ~18% winning percentage against top 10 teams.... Worst on the list. Seems to be PSU's problem these days.
