STATE COLLEGE — The team in the iconic navy blue and white uniforms will be facing the squad from Boston in a big game at Yankee Stadium.
It’s just a few months later than baseball fans might have wanted. Penn State will make its earlier-than-anticipated return to the postseason when it faces traditional Northeast foe Boston College in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl, the schools announced Sunday.
The battle will pit the relentless Eagles rushing offense against the Nittany Lions’ staunch run defense, but for Penn State fans, the matchups on the field take a back seat to the fact there’s a matchup at all.
“The Pinstripe Bowl will provide thousands of Penn Staters, particularly in the Northeast and
Mid-Atlantic, an opportunity to support the 2014 Nittany Lions one more time and take in all that New York City has to offer during the holidays,” Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour said in a statement. “I’m particularly pleased that our senior football student-athletes will have a chance to play in a bowl game, and that as a community, we will have one more opportunity to thank and honor them.”
Just a bit more than two years removed from what was scheduled to be a four-year bowl ban — the NCAA removed the sanctions, including the remaining two years of the bowl, from the findings of the Freeh Report in September — Penn State is heading back to the postseason.
And, the fact that it is occurring about 240 miles due east of Beaver Stadium at one of baseball’s most famous venues, is something head coach James Franklin said can be a boon for fans.
Especially since the season opener in Dublin, Ireland, was one many who would travel to road games had to sit out.
“This has worked out well,” Franklin said. “I think the fact that we’re going to be able to play in a bowl game in which we should have a really strong presence with our fans and alumni. For a lot of the friends and families that really sacrificed the money to go to Ireland and support the team, this is a bowl that, from a location and travel standpoint, that they can continue to support the team.
“It’s pretty cool that, on Twitter, I just saw that Donovan Smith (Penn State’s junior left tackle) who is originally from New York, his grandfather has never seen him play a college game,’’ Franklin added. “Now that it’s in New York, there’s a chance grandpa can see him play for the first time in his college career. I don’t think there’s any doubt, there are benefits to it.”
Maybe, the Nittany Lions can reverse some recent history in front of those fans, too. Penn State hasn’t appeared in a bowl game since the 2011 season, when it lost to Houston 30-14 in the TicketCity Bowl at Dallas’ Cotton Bowl on Jan. 2, 2012. The Nittany Lions haven’t won a bowl game since beating LSU in the rain-soaked Capital One Bowl on Jan. 1, 2010.
Despite dominating the all-time series against them — Penn State has won 19 of the 23 meetings all-time — the Lions haven’t beaten the Eagles since 1991. Boston College has won the last three meetings between the schools, including a 27-14 thumping at Beaver Stadium in 2003.
This Eagles team also has some reminders of nightmares from past bowls for Penn State. Senior quarterback Tyler Murphy and head coach Steve Addazio were both on the sideline for Florida when the Nittany Lions were beaten by the Gators in the 2011 Outback Bowl, Murphy as a backup and Addazio as the Gators’ offensive coordinator. The Gators won that game 37-24 but the Eagles’ second-year head coach said this one has a bit more special of a meaning.
“This is one of those old rivalry games, two Northeast powers battling each other,” Addazio said. “It’s just so exciting. When we announced it, the whole place went bananas. That’s where our kids wanted to go. Ninety percent of our team is New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio. They all understand the Penn State-BC thing.”
In its fifth year, the Pinstripe Bowl has had a run of landing some of college football’s most storied programs, and getting Penn State continues the trend. Last season, the bowl featured Notre Dame, which beat Rutgers 29-16, and now hosts Penn State’s return to the postseason, in the hometown of former coach Joe Paterno.
“We are delighted to welcome Penn State and Boston College, and their student-athletes and devoted alumni, to the 2014 New Era Pinstripe Bowl,” Pinstripe Bowl executive director Mark Holtzman said in a statement. “There is no better place to experience an event than Yankee Stadium and no better place to celebrate a bowl appearance during the holiday season than New York City. We are excited to be able to share this wonderful experience with our partners in the Big Ten and ACC for years to come.”