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Dec. 7, 2005
Football: Penguins to Take On Big Ten Champ Penn State in 2006
Youngstown -- The Youngstown State football team will
play its first-ever game against an
opponent from the Big Ten Conference
next fall when the Penguins travel
to State College, Pa., to take on
Penn State. The Penguins and Nittany
Lions will play at Beaver Stadium on
Saturday, Sept. 16, both university
athletic departments announced on
Wednesday.
YSU Athletic Director Ron Strollo said playing against a
perennial power and historic program
like Penn State increases the
national exposure for the entire
University.
"This is a great opportunity for our school to play against
one of the most prestigious
institutions in the country when it
comes to college football," Strollo
said. "We are grateful for the
chance to play Penn State, and I
know everyone involved with our
football family is excited as I am
to compete against a school from the
Big Ten on the gridiron for the
first time."
Both schools had to do some schedule juggling to make the
matchup possible.
The Nittany Lions were scheduled to play Louisiana Tech for
that Saturday while YSU was
scheduled to travel to Northeastern.
However, Louisiana Tech opted out of
the contest
due to scheduling conflicts within the new alignment
of schools in the Western Athletic
Conference and the Penguins were
able to reschedule the game against
the Huskies in Boston for a future
season.
Penn State is the Big Ten's automatic qualifier into this
year's BCS following a 10-1
campaign, which included a 7-1 mark
in conference play. The Nittany
Lions are ranked third in the final
ESPN/USA Today Coaches and The
Associated Press Polls. PSU will
play Florida State in the FedEx
Orange Bowl on Jan. 3.
On 39 occasions, Youngstown State has played a Division I-A
foe since moving to the Division
I-AA ranks in 1981. YSU is 19-19-1
all-time against I-A schools and
played its first-ever game against a
member of the Big East Conference,
Pittsburgh, this past season.
YSU is coming off an 8-3 campaign in which it was 5-2 in the
Gateway Football Conference tying
playoff semifinalist Northern Iowa
and playoff quarterfinalist Southern
Illinois for the league title. The
only other loss in 2005 was at Pitt.
The remainder of the Penguins' 2006 season will be announced
in the near future. |
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