It's like a rerun of a bad TV show, one that had been replaying for 14 years.

The No. 16 Penn State women's gymnastics team has been to the Big Ten Championships 14 times, and it has nothing to show for it. No trophies or banners hanging in Rec Hall, just a lot of "second place" and some bruised egos.

Each year, they say this team is different, better than last year. This year, the Nittany Lions will win it all and knock Michigan off the pedestal it has been on for the past seven years. Right?

Wrong.

Despite having a respectable season and finishing 10-5, there are still some things missing that will leave the Lions sitting in second place at the end of the Big Ten Championships this weekend. Here are my five reasons that separate them from their goal.

The first reason: team consistency.

Penn State has been up-and-down the entire season, fluctuating between great performances when it doesn't need them and mediocre ones when it needs the good ones. This might be OK when you are playing teams like Cornell or Yale, but not when you will be up against the best in the Big Ten.

In the meet against Florida and LSU, teams who are nationally ranked third and eighth, the Lions had their worst performance. This does not bode well for them, especially when they will be up against Michigan, currently No. 7 in the rankings.

The second reason: confidence.

Confidence is such a loaded word and, for these Lions, they need every ounce of it they can get. Meredith Hoover, Lisa Clark and Jennifer Orlando have been holding the team together. They have been the most consistent performers all season, but when they falter, everyone falters. In the Florida/LSU meet, all three had some of their lowest scores of the season, especially Hoover and Clark, who scored an 8.925 and a 9.325 on the uneven bars, respectively. Consequently, the rest of the team followed suit and had bad performances.

"It's a team effort. We need to count on everyone. Everyone has to do their job," Penn State women's gymnastics coach Steve Shephard said. "From the bottom of the lineup to the top, everyone needs to do the best they can."

The third reason: the balance beam and the uneven bars.

All season, the Lions have struggled in these departments. Week after week they say they are working on it, improving their form, execution and landings. But when it's meet time, they still find a way to mess up.

Michigan, however, seems to excel in these events. In a comparison of the two teams, the Wolverines are ahead in every event, especially on bars and beam, which are the biggest gaps between both schools.

"They can do it in practice. We've been consistently really good in practice. They really need to compete with confidence and do their job," Shephard said.

But practice is not a meet, and it is definitely not the Big Tens. There will be lots of people, cameras and pressure, all factors that could lead to the Lions' downfall.

The fourth reason: experience within the Big Ten.

There will be six teams at the meet this weekend, but the Lions have only had three meets of experience against Big Ten teams. On Jan. 21, Penn State lost a close meet to Michigan by .4 points. A week later, in a meet it should have won, the team lost to Minnesota, who was ranked lower. The Lions did beat Ohio State, but this is not a Buckeyes team that can rival its football team. It is ranked lower than Penn State in every category, so the win on Feb. 25 will not be a factor Saturday.

Not playing these teams since the beginning of the season will hurt the Lions more than help them. Despite their own personal improvement, the other teams have also improved and could add another factor into the puzzle that wasn't there before.

The fifth reason: injuries.

The team has been plagued by injuries all season. It started the season already down three gymnasts, all with different injuries. Sophomore Lindsay Borkan had returned but is definitely not in the form she was last year. An MRI last weekend showed that a stress fracture in her ankle that has been an issue since December is acting up again, and she will not be competing this weekend.

An even bigger problem arose last weekend when Meredith Hoover, the pride and joy of the gymnastics team, hurt her bad ankle. She will also not be competing this weekend, which will put the Lions at the mercy of other healthier Big Ten teams.

"We are a little bit banged up this week. Hoover tweaked her bad ankle," Shephard said. "We are just trying to maintain our focus, stay positive and fight through it."

All these problems add up to one big conclusion: the Lions are not consistent enough or strong enough to win the Big Tens, and that rerun just might be playing for a 15th time.