USC football enters the Big Ten Conference in a very real way this week at Big Ten media days. Penn State is not a longtime member of the Big Ten, but its tenure in the conference is longer than newer arrivals Nebraska, Rutgers, and Maryland. Penn State has been in the Big Ten for more than 30 years. We’re not going to select the greatest Penn State moment from those 30 years, however; PSU’s greatest moment came before its Big Ten era began.
There can be only one choice for Penn State’s greatest football moment. There’s simply no way to come up with any other final answer. It’s the 1987 Fiesta Bowl in which the Nittany Lions upset No. 1 Miami to win the national championship. It’s not just the fact that PSU won a national title which makes this game iconic in Penn State lore; it’s the fact that Miami came to a game banquet in camouflage uniforms, projecting a tough-guy image and basically disrespecting the Nittany Lion team. Penn State players attended that same Fiesta Bowl banquet in dress shirts and ties. Miami reveled in its bad-boy image. Penn State’s players were clean-cut and soft-spoken. When Penn State utterly dismantled Vinny Testaverde and the rest of Miami’s high-flying offense, it wasn’t just a national title; Penn State won a battle of civilizations in a college football sense. The contrast between the teams couldn’t have been more pronounced, the pregame buzz couldn’t have been more delicious. That made Penn State’s win taste even sweeter. It is the ultimate Penn State football moment, bar none.
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