Brush the dust off this old sucker, it's football time.

What do you get when you add together Joe Paterno's age, Penn State's "official" national championships, and the program's bowl victories under Joe? 107 - the precise number of days until grills are sparked, beers are shotgunned, and Dear Old State thrashes Akron in Happy Valley. Yes boys and girls, this blog is fully prepared to take off. We'll begin with weekly blurbs before getting into the thick of things as we march toward September 5th.

To start things off, congratulations are in order for 2009 captains Sean Lee and Daryl Clark. These fine gentlemen were no surprise, considering what leadership they brought to the team on the sideline and on the field, respectively. However, I find the return to two captains, however temporary, to be refreshing. And really, who's not looking forward to seeing baby face Lee crushing souls on the turf? Potential man crush brewing? We'll see in due time.

Chicago was home to the Big Ten meetings this week, where Joe surprisingly backed off from his earlier push for a 12th team and conference championship. The 82 year old Italian son-of-a-b is anything but of out of touch with the realities of the sport he helped to mold into what it is today. Here is an old man calling the Big Ten outdated. One quote sums it up:

We go into hiding for six weeks. Everybody else is playing playoffs on television. You never see a Big Ten team mentioned. So I think that's a handicap. [espn]

Well said. More on this to come.

Bowl season is still far away, but it needs to be noted that five of the Big Ten's bowl contracts are up for renewal after the 2009 season. Here's looking at you, Orlando. The Florida Citrus Bowl is the home to both the Champs Sports Bowl and Capital One Bowl. The problem is that the sorry pile of metal in humid Florida is, oh I don't know, 14 years overdue for a face lift. The 65,000 seat decrepit stadium is not suitable to be home to the Big Ten's best non-BCS tie-in. Another possibility would be the soon-to-be opened Cowboys Stadium, which will become the host of the Cotton Bowl the following year. 80,000 (expandable to 100K) seats of Jerry Jones inspired testosterone. Is this a realistic possibility? Considering the Big 12 and SEC are the current tie-ins and can guarantee fans, combined with the fact that the Capital One payout is a million more, probably not. One can hope though.