As we head out of June and into July, it’s time to start thinking football. After all, it is right around the corner. The preseason college football magazines are on newsstands now. I’ve seen Penn State ranked as high as 10th in the nation and as low as 35th. Personally, I’ve got them falling somewhere in between, but we’ll save that information for another day.
There is plenty of Penn State news to report on this week, including the latest verbal commitment and some broadcasting information that Nittany Lion fans will find interesting.
We’ll also continue our countdown of the top 10 moments of the year at PSU, and have another question for athletic director Tim Curley.
Let’s start with the new (and somewhat controversial) Big Ten Network.
The Battle Wages On
As you almost certainly know by now, the Big Ten is launching its own network in August. The Big Ten Network will debut sometime that month and will feature everything and anything when it comes to Big Ten Sports. And it won’t just be football and basketball. The BTN plans to air wrestling, volleyball, gymnastics, baseball, among countless other sports.
When it was announced that the Big Ten was developing its own network, I was skeptical. But the conference has hired some of the top talent in the nation to launch the network, so it might work.
Right now, the BTN will only be available on DirecTV. Not a problem, right? Who cares about gymnastics and lacrosse anyway? Well, you might care — especially when the network announced that two of Penn State’s first three games will air exclusively on the BTN. Both the Florida International and Buffalo games will air on the BTN. So if you don’t have DirecTV, you won’t see the games.
Comcast, which is Pennsylvania’s largest cable provider apparently has no plans to add the network to its digital package, could leave many Penn State fans out in the cold.
Personally, I think both parties are being greedy. Cable giant Comcast feels like it can push the BTN around, and the folks at the Big Ten are being stubborn. The conference brass doesn’t care who sees the games and who doesn’t see the games.
No matter how this turns out, the fans are the ones who will lose.
(Michael Mauti. Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated)
Latest Verbal
The Nittany Lions got their third commitment this weekend when Michael Mauti of Mandeville, La., verballed to the Nittany Lions. He was on campus for Penn State’s senior-only camp. He wasn’t expected to make a commitment so early, but once he saw the campus, he knew where he wanted to spend the next four years, he said.
Mauti is a three-star recruit, according to Rivals.com.
“The trip was awesome, it was absolutely awesome,” Mauti told Blue White Illustrated. “I have some pretty big news for you. You got your latest Penn Stater here.”
Mauti is a 6-foot-2, 220-pound linebacker at Mandeville High School. He met with Penn State coach Joe Paterno on Saturday afternoon and gave him the good news then.
He is the son of Rich Mauti who played at Penn State. He accompanied his son to University Park and was there when he committed.
“My dad and I went in there and we were catching up just a bit, talking about old stories, and he said ‘what about you Mike, what’s the deal?’ I just said ‘I’m coming.’ Everybody got up and we exchanged hugs and everybody was happy.”
Michael’s brother is current Lion walk-on receiver Patrick Mauti.
(Aaron Anspach. Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated)
No. 9 Top Moment
The countdown continues as we look back at the year that was in Penn State athletics.
Our No. 9 event of the year focuses on the performance of a Penn State wrestler at nationals.
The Penn State wrestling team is still fighting to reassert itself as a fixture among the Top 10 at the NCAA Wrestling Championships in the team race. That’s still a work in progress.
The Nittany Lions don’t, however, have any problem placing wrestlers high on the podium. The only problem is, for the past two years, the Nittany Lions haven’t been able to advance higher than the second-highest plateau.
Senior heavyweight Aaron Anspach started the season ranked only as high as 19th in one poll, unranked in others. Having had more than two seasons wiped out by shoulder injuries and surgeries, Anspach was a relative unknown beyond the borders of the University Park campus.
But, as the season wore on, Anspach conquered a series of higher-ranked opponents, catapulting into the Top 20, then the Top 10 and then the Top 5.
Anspach eventually placed second at the Big Ten Championships and then at the NCAA tournament, compiling a 22-4 record. Three of those losses — in the dual meet, the Big Ten final and the NCAA final — were to two-time NCAA champion Cole Konrad. Because of his injuries, Anspach was counting on being granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA. HIs request, and subsequent appeal, were both denied.
Questions With Curley
This week’s question with Penn State athletic director Tim Curley has to do with the NCAA’s ban on text messaging high school recruits.
Text messaging has become very popular among teenagers, and coaches were using the technology to lure recruits to their school. While hand-written notes and e-mails are still permitted, text messaging is not.
CM: The NCAA recently banned text messaging recruits. What’s your reaction to that?
TC: Well, the text messaging has been one of the most interesting pieces of legislation since I’ve been involved in the NCAA for 26 years now. It’s been interesting because I’ve never seen such a split in a piece of legislation. You had a segment of coaches that felt like text messaging was absolutely essential in their recruiting process and that we absolutely had to stay up with evolving technology and be able to stay in touch, particularly when there are so many restrictions on how much contact we can have with prospective student/athletes. So they felt very strongly about that. That was primarily the assistant coaches because they’re the ones out recruiting. The head coaches didn’t quite feel that way in that they didn’t feel that it was as necessary as much as the assistant coaches. And then you certainly had the administrative side that there were tremendous bills with text messaging and there was a tremendous amount of concern about the intrusion on prospective student-athletes when they’re sitting in their high schools in a classroom from 8 a.m. until 3 in the afternoon getting all these text messages.
In addition writing for gantnews.com, Chris Morelli is the editor of Blue White Illustrated, a magazine devoted to Penn State sports. He is also a regular on “Front and Center,” which airs on ESPN Radio in Altoona and State College.
E-mail him at morellionlion@gmail.com.