Dec. 4, 2009
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; -
The Penn State football team will soon be rewarded for its hard work, dedication and 10-victory season with the opportunity to play in its 36th bowl game under Coach Joe Paterno.
All of the 2009-10 bowl match-ups will be announced on Sunday night, starting with the five Bowl Championship Series games. The five BCS contests will be announced at 8:00 p.m. ET on Fox.
The Big Ten Networks's Big Ten Bowl Announcement Special will air at 9:00 p.m. ET on Sunday to be followed by Big Ten Tonight at 10:00 p.m. The Big Ten Bowl Announcement Special will re-air at 10:30 p.m.
Host Dave Revsine and analysts Gerry DiNardo and Howard Griffith will break down where each team is headed and how they match up with their opponents during the 60-minute program.
Penn State (10-2) concluded its regular season with a 42-14 victory at Michigan State on Nov. 21, posting Paterno's Football Bowl Subdivision record 21st season with at least 10 victories.
The No. 11 (BCS) Nittany Lions are 50-13 (79.3) since the start of the 2005 season, the nation's No. 8 winning percentage over that span. Penn State will be playing in its 36th bowl game under Paterno, who is the all-time leader in post-season appearances and victories (23-11-1 record). The Nittany Lions are No. 9 in the USA Today Coaches and Harris Interactive polls and No. 10 in the Associated Press poll.
Penn State will likely earn its 24th New Year's bowl bid under the Hall of Fame coach, who owns a 16-7 mark in such contests.
Ticket information on all of Penn State's potential bowl games will be posted on www.GoPSUsports.com's Bowl/Gameday Central by Friday evening. The link scrolls across the front page of GoPSUsports.com.
Penn State leads all Big Ten schools in bowl victories, appearances and winning percentage. The Nittany Lions have a 26-13-2 record in bowl games and their winning percentage of 65.8 is third in the nation among schools with a minimum of 10 bowl wins. Penn State also is third nationally in bowl wins, while its 41 bowl appearances are eighth-best.
The Nittany Lions had a conference-high six first team All-Big Ten selections and nine choices overall, as did Iowa. Penn State senior defensive tackle Jared Odrick (Lebanon) this week was named a first team All-American by the American Football Coaches Association. Odrick was selected the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and Defensive Lineman of the Year. He is the first interior lineman to earn the conference's top defensive honor since Dan Wilkinson of Ohio State in 1993.
Odrick earned first team All-Big Ten accolades for the second consecutive year, as did senior quarterback Daryll Clark (Youngstown, Ohio) and junior linebacker Navorro Bowman (District Heights, Md.). Clark is just the 12th Big Ten player to be selected the first team all-conference quarterback more than once. Senior tackle Dennis Landolt (Burlington, N.J.), junior tailback Evan Royster (Fairfax, Va,) and junior center Stefen Wisniewski (Bridgeville) also earned first team All-Big Ten accolades.
Penn State's second team all-conference selections were senior punter Jeremy Boone (Mechanicsburg), senior linebacker Josh Hull (Millheim) and senior linebacker Sean Lee (Pittsburgh).
For the second consecutive year, Penn State led all Football Bowl Subdivision teams in ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America® selections. Three Nittany Lions repeated their Academic All-America® accolades on the 2009 team: senior linebacker Josh Hull (Millheim), senior kick snapper Andrew Pitz (Bettendorf, Iowa) and junior center Stefen Wisniewski (Bridgeville). Hull and Pitz were 2008 first team honorees and Wisniewski was a second team selection last year.