Don't generalize about a fan base or a state population based on message board posts. It's not exactly a scientific sample of PSU (or Iowa) fans. We have no idea who these people are but I suspect a lot of them are losers who didn't even attend the college they purport to root for - maybe no college at all.
I do think among the dumbass PSU fans there has been a lack of respect for Iowa, along the lines of, we're a higher profile program, we recruit all these four and five star players up and down the East Coast, how can Iowa even compete with us, we ought to be just awarded the win based on recruiting stars, that kind of idiotic thinking.
You'd think losing 8 of 9 games to Ferentz in the late 90s and 2000s (or whatever it was, I don't want to look it up) would have cured people of this. How many times do you have to lose to a team before you have to concede that's a pretty darn good football program?
Sometimes football fans have memories that are too long. PSU fans are not unique in that way. We saw what the B1G officials did to our team in the late 90s and early 2000s. I don't think any other fans in the B1G can even relate to it, but the B1G brass absolutely had it in for Paterno and we saw it in the officiating in every big game (and then in the other games against lesser opponents like Indiana and Purdue, the B10 would give PSU the makeup calls - which was condescending and even more infuriating. )
Soured a lot of PSU fans on being in the B1G -- that is why PSU fans booed Delaney when they won the B10 championship. That's the source of the bitterness.
But it's ancient history, we're talking 15 years ago, it's way past time to get over it. The officiating is light years better now, the league is run by pros now instead of the old boys club from the midwest. They hire officials based on qualifications instead of being Michigan boosters or second cousins of Earle Bruce or drinking buddies with Dave Parry.
Some of the crews I don't love, but I no longer get the sense that the B1G is trying to pre-determine the outcome of games. They let the chips fall; that's how Purdue (or Iowa last year) beats Ohio State and knocks them out of the playoff -- that never would have been allowed to happen under the old regime.
Anyway, there's no reason to hate Iowa; the well informed PSU fans respect this program and look forward to these games. That was a pretty ugly Big Ten football game on Saturday -- and I mean that in the best sense of the word. It was a big, big win for PSU. Beating a quality Iowa team -- especially this year, the way PSU has struggled -- to me it's the biggest thing they've accomplished.
And I really mean it when I say I'll root for Iowa the rest of the year. Go kick the snot out of Pat Fitzgerald.
There is such of difference in the mindset of Iowans and PSU people. Iowans are nice, the kind of people who would give you the shirts off their back. Most PA people are smug, and talk shit all the time. I find this in the work place and I find it on these boards.
The PSU board population just spews venom and acts like classic victims when any of the past in brought up. So, I am not bringing it up.
I'll just say that I'd rather be around rational caring people who enjoy football and other aspects of life than people that are so wrapped up in this thing that they treat it as life and death.
As if you can't figure it out, PSU has 50 million people living in a 5 hour radius of campus and is the biggest public university in the NE. How the hell can you not be good and get the majority of kids you want. The fact that you have to compete against Michigan and OSU and cannot own them should eat at you. How lowly Iowa could take you to the end 2 years in a row says more about your program than ours. We are the smallest public in the Big Ten and have to share a small state with a 2nd power 5 team. I'd suggest some more education on the history of the league since many of you still detest the Big Ten.
Best of luck and enjoyment as it obviously means so much to all of you.
Boyer, thanks you have been by far the most level headed over here.
