If you are making a case for why the Penn State women's soccer team shouldn't win a ninth consecutive Big Ten championship, four reasons should immediately jump out at you:

This is not last season.

The Nittany Lions were nearly perfect in 2005, with a 23-0-2 record and a trip to the third College Cup in school history.

In the national semifinal against Portland, they held the eventual-national champions scoreless for 110 minutes before falling short -- by one goal -- on penalty kicks.

Repeating that feat would be a daunting task.

This is not the same team.

Gone are explosive forwards Tiffany Weimer and Carmelina Moscato. Gone are shutdown defenders Natalie Jacobs and Lindsay Bach. Gone is stalwart goalkeeper Erin McLeod.

In all, four starters and six letterwinners are missing from last year's team that clinched its eighth Big Ten title with a perfect 10-0 record.

It is unlikely that Penn State will be able to flawlessly navigate another grueling conference schedule.

Still, despite the obvious reasons why not to, there are some people -- like me -- who think the Lions have an excellent shot of successfully defending their title for the ninth time.

Some of those just happen to be Big Ten coaches, who voted Penn State as the favorite to finish in first place.

While their reasoning may be based on the Lions' past dominance, mine is based on what I have seen -- at practice and in games.

This is still not last season.

Head coach Paula Wilkins has stressed that since Day One

"We are not last year's team and we need to realize that," she has said on more than one occasion.

So if there was any chance that Penn State was going to sit back and let its reputation do all of the work, it is gone.

The Lions know that every conference game will be a dogfight, especially with an ever-growing bulls-eye on their backs.

This is definitely not the same team.

If last year's team was guilty of anything, it was relying too heavily on Tiffany Weimer.

Now that the Big Ten's all-time leading scorer is gone, Penn State will need a more team-oriented attack, something it has shown glimpses of this season.

Through eight games, eight different players have scored the Lions' 13 goals. By comparison: eight players accounted for 24 goals in the first 13 contests of 2005.

So while its conference foes may be licking their chops at the thought of dethroning the champs, Penn State will be out to prove something.