When Penn State commences its Big Ten title defense tomorrow, it will oddly enough be against last year's Big Ten champion, Ohio State.

Wait a second here. What about all the Penn State students wearing T-shirts proclaiming Penn State as the 2005 Big Ten Champion, not the 2005 Big Ten Co-Champion?

How can Penn State, last year's champion, open Big Ten play against the 2005 Big Ten champion?

Well, here's how it breaks down: Penn State and Ohio State finished with identical 7-1 records in the Big Ten last year. Ohio State's one loss was at Penn State, while the Nittany Lion's lone loss was to Michigan.

Because the Big Ten does not count head-to-head standings in the event of a tied conference record, Ohio State and Penn State finished as conference co-champions.

With the Big Ten Trophy traveling to Michigan State last year with Penn State and then traveling back to Happy Valley with the Lions after they beat the Spartans, players on last year's squad were asked if the felt like Big Ten champions or Big Ten co-champions.

Here's what former Penn State quarterback Michael Robinson said:

"C'mon, man, we beat them," he said after Penn State beat Michigan State to clinch the Big Ten title. "They know it, we know it; I know we don't have a conference championship to really decide it, but we beat them head-to-head, so what do you think?"

This week, players on this year's team were asked if there were any lingering feelings of frustration after sharing the Big Ten title.

"It's not really up to me," center A.Q. Shipley said, "but we all look at it as we beat them, We should have been the overall champ."

The rest of the team gave a more muted response.

Sophomore wide receiver Derrick Williams said he "really didn't care" that Penn State had to share a Big Ten title with Ohio State.

"We were Co-Champions. The only thing that I knew is that we were champions at something," he said "I'm pretty sure that they [the Buckeyes] deserved the championship just like we did. We lost to Michigan, and they beat Michigan. The only thing that I was proud of was that we were champions."

Others on the team said that they didn't need to be the outright conference champion to be content.

"We felt like we were the top team in the country," junior linebacker Dan Connor said of the shared title. "We had a lot of confidence and swagger as far as who was where."

Since joining the Big Ten in 1993, Penn State has two conference titles. The Lions won the Big Ten outright in 1994, finishing undefeated.

Ohio State has 30 Big Ten crowns, four of those coming since Penn State joined the conference.

Tomorrow, Penn State and Ohio State will both gun for another title, in the most absurd way possible -- against a Big Ten champion.

"I never even thought of it that way to be honest with you," senior linebacker and co-captain Paul Posluszny said of defending the Big Ten title against the co-champion Buckeyes.

"I guess that is kind of strange."