A football program with a storied history but marred by scandal, a women’s soccer program that has produced several Portland Thorns players, and a college town that serves as an example of the magic of college sports.
The Penn State Nittany Lions joined the Big Ten Conference in 1990 and boast one of the most iconic environments in college football. And with a massive athletic budget, the school has a long list of national championships in several other sports.
As the Oregon Ducks prepare for a move to the Big Ten in 2024, The Oregonian/OregonLive is taking a look at all of their newest conference rivals. While Ducks fans might be deeply familiar with fellow Pac-12 departees Washington, USC and UCLA, they have 14 new teams to get to know this year.
Next up is Penn State.
THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY
Nickname: Nittany Lions
Location: State College, Pennsylvania
School founded: 1855
Joined Big Ten: 1990
Type: Public
Enrollment: 48,535 (main campus)
Endowment: $4.6 billion
Athletic department spending (2021-22): $170.5 million
Athletic department revenue (2021-22): $181.2 million
Football spending (2021-22): $57.6 million
Football revenue (2021-22): $105.6 million
Football stadium: Beaver Stadium
Capacity: 106,572
Varsity sports: 30 (15 men’s, 14 women’s, 1 co-ed)
Mascot: The Nittany Lion
Fight song: “Fight On, State”
Notable alumni: Saquon Barkley, Ty Burrell (also an Oregon alum!), Sam Coffey, Franco Harris, Keegan-Michael Key, Adam McKay, Rocky Rodríguez, Rick Santorum
Famous coaches: Joe Paterno (football), James Franklin (football), Emmanuil Kaidanov (fencing), Erica Walsh (women’s soccer)
Biggest rivals: Ohio State, Pittsburgh (historic)
Essential movie: The Paterno Legacy (2022) — Penn State is not defined by the horrors of the child sex abuse scandal in its football program, but it is impossible to understand the school’s athletic history without examining the full picture of Joe Paterno’s legacy. This documentary from ESPN’s “E:60″ explains how Paterno brought the Nittany Lions to national prominence, and the fallout from revelations about longtime assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.
Team national titles: Football (2), men’s cross-country (3), men’s gymnastics (12), men’s volleyball (2), women’s volleyball (7), wrestling (11), women’s fencing (16), women’s lacrosse (2), women’s soccer (1)
Did you know? Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, co-founders of Ben & Jerry’s, took a $5 correspondence course from Penn State on ice cream making in 1977. They opened their first store in Burlington, Vermont, one year later, and the rest is history for the iconic ice cream brand.
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