Penn State football called 'best value' pick to win Big Ten title
Penn State news, notes, and updates for May 31 include a look at the Lions’ Big Ten title odds, headlines from around the beat, and more.
It’s time to dive into Wednesday’s top tweets and headlines about the Nittany Lions and college athletics.
Penn State tweets of the day
We start with the Big Ten title betting board. CBS Sports’ Tom Fornelli took a closer look at the conference and how it could play out in the 2023 season. He called Penn State, which is 6.5-to-1 to win the conference crown for the first time since 2016, the best value available.
“Quarterback Sean Clifford was always better than he was given credit for (he was a fifth-round NFL Draft pick, after all), but he was never good enough to get Penn State over the Ohio State and Michigan hump in the East,” Fornelli writes. “The last Penn State quarterback to finish among the top three Big Ten passers in yards per game was Trace McSorley, who did so in 2016 and 2017. In 2016, Penn State won the Big Ten. The following year, it finished 11-2 with both losses coming by a combined four points to Ohio State and Michigan State, and finished in the AP top 10.
“I’m telling you all this not because I loved McSorley (I did), but because Drew Allar has a chance to be Penn State’s best quarterback since McSorley. We’ve seen what Penn State can do when it has one of the league’s top quarterbacks. Penn State also has potential No. 1 overall draft pick (tackle Olu Fashanu) and a defense that will once again be one of the league’s best.”
Quote of the day
“It’s funny because my wife and I were just talking about this the other day. Both personally and professionally, it’s hard to predict that, especially in today’s college football. My first nine years, I think I lived in nine different states or countries. So to be somewhere for 10 years and with the possibility of another 10 is very unusual.
“And it’s something that I do take great pride in. It’s been awesome, it’s been challenging, it’s been frustrating at times. But, that’s also why I think I’m so proud of it because I know how much we’ve invested and fought and scraped and battled to get where we are.”
–PSU coach James Franklin to BWI as he embarks on his 10th season in State College.
