EAST LANSING, Mich. -- It was a season with a little bit of everything.

The good: a 1,000-yard rusher, a linebacker with 100 tackles, a CompUSA Florida Citrus Bowl berth and no worse than third-place conference standing in the inaugural season.

And the not-so-good: a devastating loss to Ohio State, and a fateful series of downs on the goal line against Michigan.

For Penn State, it all concluded with the 38-37 come-from-behind victory against Michigan State on Saturday -- the last of the unfamiliar opponents was finally out of the way.

Heading into the season, nobody knew exactly what to expect. What do they think of the conference now?

Defensive tackle Tyoka Jackson said he was apprehensive about coming into the Big Ten at first. Now having gone through it, he said he believes it does a lot to raise the level of play.

"I never felt that type of intensity before," Jackson said. "There's nothing like league play. It makes me play better."

Week in and week out, the task is dealing with a game whose outcome is magnified because of its effect on conference standings, an unfamiliar dilemma to a long-time independent like Penn State.

"Week in and week out you have to play with somebody who's going to hit you -- somebody who's tough, somebody who's competitive, somebody who's real proud of the uniform they're wearing," wide receiver Bobby Engram said. "So we have to be just as proud and just come out and just keep hitting back. And the better team's going to win."

This season, as far as Penn State is concerned, the better team emerged victorious nine out of 11 times. There were some who thought Penn State might dominate -- go to the Rose Bowl, show the midwesterners what eastern football was all about.

Coach Joe Paterno didn't expect to dominate, he realized how tough the conference would be. They were the so-called "new kids on the block" in the Big Ten, the ones who had to prove themselves worthy of belonging before they could attend the big party in Pasadena, Calif.

And he doesn't think any differently about the conference now.

"I knew it was going to be tough," Paterno said. "But I didn't think it was going to be this tough. Week in and week out, it's tough."

As far as the missed opportunities, there's no sense in dwelling on what they can't change. Michigan and Ohio State, the conference's traditional powerhouses welcomed the Lions into the Big Ten the hard way.

But it's hard for the Lions to see anything but the positives in a 9-2 season.

"Inches from 10-1 and going to the Rose Bowl -- that's tough to take," quarterback Kerry Collins said. "But that's the way it happened. It's no use living in the past like that, so we're going to have some fun down in Florida."