Penn State crowd plays part in historic win, shows NCAA why its playoffs sites shouldn’t be neutral

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — A cold wind cut north to south as the band began to play. Tyler Warren squinted into the middle distance and exhaled a deep breath. This was the 30th time the Penn State tight end had stood here in the same uniform, the 30th time he’d stared into the same stands, the 30th time he’d watched that same sea of white sway from side to side as the brass began to play.

It also was his last.

If you’d stood in the end zone at Beaver Stadium around 4 p.m. on Saturday, you would have seen all the reasons why Penn State’s 38-10 romp over SMU should have been a preview of what’s to come over the next month in the expanded College Football Playoff. You also would have seen all of the reasons it won’t be. There, amid the throng of coaches, players, and staff members serenading the student section with the alma mater, were a couple of bowl officials in puke yellow blazers handing out hats that read “FIESTA.”

Congrats on the victory, boys. You’ve just earned yourself a trip to a neutral site! Nothing says December football like a dome in a desert, right? Hey, like we always say down in Phoenix: At least it’s not cold!

Once again, the NCAA proves it could mess up a TV dinner. The first two games of this newfangled playoff format have been in a case study of what the thing should have looked like from the start. One day after a snow-covered South Bend, Ind., played a starring role in Notre Dame’s prime-time win over Indiana, the folks here at Beaver Stadium nearly reached transcendence during a game that more or less was a 3½-hour roar. Well, no more of that from here on out. But at least the next one is sponsored by Vrbo!

It’s a shame. The dirty little secret about college football is that it often isn’t a very compelling product. The story was very much the same on Saturday. In a bitter cold and wind chill in the teens, Penn State and SMU combined for two offensive touchdowns in the first three quarters. The Nittany Lions took a 14-0 lead on a pair of pick-six interceptions on two of the worst throws you’ll ever see. Maybe Kevin Jennings couldn’t feel his fingers.

He most certainly could not hear anything.

The thing is, those last two variables are what made this game watchable. Enjoyable, even.

We scribes tend to overuse the word “electric,” but there were times on Saturday when the crowd appeared to literally be powering the home team. Late in the first quarter, there was a second-down play where Jennings had to walk nearly the full length of the line of scrimmage with his hand cupped in front of his face mask to communicate the play call. Late in the second quarter, two straight false-start penalties after first-and-goal from the 5-yard line forced the Mustangs to settle for a field goal. The kick chopped their deficit to 28-3.

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“The environment was phenomenal,” Nittany Lions coach James Franklin said. “The turnout was unbelievable. We have the second-largest stadium in college football and the fourth-largest stadium in the world, and 99% of the stadium was filled up with our fans. It made a huge difference.”

SMU was broken. It had no chance. Bryson DeChambeau and the gang should have stayed on the plane in Williamsport, Pa. By the time the news broke of the SMU donor’s late arrival on a party bus, there already were more interesting things happening in Altoona.

It was great theater. Which, really, is where the allure of college football lies. It’s about the throngs of students and townies making their way up Old Main toward the stadium, a steady stream of Nittany White and Doe Season Orange flocking to their mecca. It’s about the marching band and the majorette, all in the early stages of frostbite.

More than anything, it’s about guys like Warren, a fifth-year senior, and Abdul Carter, a junior from Philadelphia. Both will be off to the NFL draft, whenever this Penn State run ends. This probably would have been their last home game regardless. With their win over SMU on Saturday, the sixth-seeded Nittany Lions advance to play third-seeded Boise State, who presumably would have been the host school. But they have seniors in Idaho, too, not to mention a bunch of fans who would have been thrilled to not have to fly on a commuter jet to some city that connects to Phoenix.

They also have traditions, like the sledgehammer that the Broncos’ captain carries through a cloud of fog while leading the team onto the blue turf field. Their mascot looks like the kind of horse you’d have a conversation with after popping an Ambien. College football was meant to be played in places where potatoes are currency instead of mushy things you eat at 4:30 p.m. before going to bed.

The game itself matters, of course. Penn State is two wins away from playing for its first national title since 1986. A real, 12-team playoff has always been such an obvious upgrade that even the NCAA can’t completely mess it up.

But the environment matters. Narratives are all about setting and characters, and each reflects the other. Take the characters out of the setting, and the entertainment value suffers. There is nothing dramatic about neutral.

Saturday had it all. The cold. The crowd. The linebackers combined for three interceptions and two touchdowns. History was made and summoned. It will feel a lot different watching that kind of thing in a place where its history kicked off in the 1990s.

» READ MORE: No. 6 Penn State punches ticket to Fiesta Bowl via rout of No. 11 SMU in College Football Playoff