Thirty-nine players drafted to the NFL fought for it.

Twelve All-Americans were a part of it.

Four Top-10 finishes guaranteed it.

Now 119 weeks later, there is no more. The streak is over.

Penn State is not in this week's Top 25.

And Joe Paterno knew the result long before Sunday's embarrassing performance against USC and could do nothing about it.

With Penn State's devastating loss to USC Sunday, it guaranteed the Lions would fall from the Top 25 poll for the first time since the end of the 1992 season.

For lack of a better word, it would have taken a modern-day miracle to save his team from the horrifying performance that we witnessed first-hand in the Lions 29-5 loss.

On the opening play, Penn State was in trouble by moving before the snap, resulting in a false start penalty.

And before that play even occurred, Joe knew that this season would be an uphill battle.

Paterno is beginning his 35th year as head coach, and he knew it in April when he lost Courtney Brown and LaVar Arrington to the NFL.

He knew it when he lost offensive starters Chafie Fields and Kevin Thompson to graduation.

But when it came time to turn down a bid to the Kickoff Classic like Michigan and Virginia Tech did before them, he was placed in a position that has become all too familiar to him.

He allowed his players to decide their fate, and this time it failed miserably.

For what you saw Sunday was something most people were not or should not have been shocked about.

Sunday's game was more or less the "make it or break it game for Penn State."

If they won, most people would have been elated and happy. However, when they lost, most fans accompanying me in section 122 were not disappointed, but used terms such as "this is going to be a long season."

A long season is something rarely thought of in the fall in Happy Valley, but now it is a reality for Penn State fans.

Nittany Lions faithful who usually look forward to seeing how high Penn State is ranked in the polls will have to face bitter reality now that the Lions are out of the Top 25.

The only person or persons to put the blame on is the athletic department and this great university we are part of.

The system is based on money, and when Kickoff Classic officials called Penn State's board of brilliance, it leaped at the opportunity to accept more money even if USC would slaughter its young squad.

Certainly, Paterno and his team accepted the bid.

And certainly Joe and his team knew what they were getting into by playing USC Sunday, but their competitive nature forced them to accept the bid.

Penn State struggled to move the ball offensively and its defense was the only bright spot for a team that was expected to be mediocre at best.

But in the end, Penn State was still a winner though the fans will never see it. The university made $650,000 off this ordeal, and now the fans who bleed blue and white will have limited desire to watch their squad go out and play each Saturday.

The whole system is based on money, and face it, Penn State football is not going to be what it used to be.

The Lions needed a cream puff to start off the season and get established.

What they didn't need was to get embarrassed on national television just so the university can line its pockets.

Message to Penn State: Let Joe make the decisions. He's the one who knows his team better than anyone.

And think with your heads, not with your pockets. That's one of the reasons why Michigan and Virginia Tech will be successful this season and Penn State will be playing for a bowl purse of far less than $650,000.