Penn State, it's time to move on.
Two Saturdays ago, your beloved football team fell to the Iowa Hawkeyes, unceremoniously bowing out of the BCS National Championship race in the process. It was a crushing blow to the psyche of Nittany Lion fans that turned a typically happy valley into a somber and depressing one.
The good news, as far as I can tell, is that everyone was talked down from the ledge. But the mood following Penn Staters right now doesn't seem to be the attitude of fans whose team is poised to win the Big Ten and earn a trip to Pasadena.
The sadness is understandable. Students and alumni were planning trips to Miami as if it was a done deal. Penn State would be playing for a national title, and no one could convince them otherwise. That made the Iowa loss especially tough.
But after a victory over Indiana in possibly the most under-hyped game of the year, only Michigan State stands between the Lions and the top of the Big Ten heap. Maybe we should start acting like it. The buzz around this campus doesn't seem to match the biggest season-ending football game in years.
If this feeling seems familiar, that's because it is. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross documented the five stages of grieving in her book, On Death and Dying. With the right mindset, you can completely trivialize her intentions and apply these stages to other things, like sports.
1. Denial -- That's when you pretend it didn't happen. "We did not just lose to Iowa. There's no way. Maybe if I drink enough right now, I'll wake up in the morning and none of this will have occurred."
2. Anger -- This is where you get mad and start the blame game. Every Penn State student seemed to be an amateur college football analyst last week, placing the loss on any number of people's shoulders. But here's a thought: No one needs you to break down the game tape for them.
3. Bargaining -- As soon as the game clock hit zero, plenty of people were working out the math on how Penn State could still reach the National Championship game. "If Texas Tech and Alabama both lose three times and Texas loses twice more and a plane crash kills the entire Florida team..."
Look, it's not happening.
4. Depression - This was basically last week. Penn State still had two more home games to play, but people were writing them off as if they no longer mattered. Sure, it's hard to get fired up for Indiana, but by this week, everyone should be firmly entrenched in the last stage...
5. Acceptance - We lost. It happened. Move on with your life and look on the bright side.
If I would have told you before the season that Penn State would go 10-1 and play in the Rose Bowl, you might have laughed at me. At the very least, you would have been doubtful.
But that's where we are right now. Maybe the Lions would have been better off losing early in the year so that the false hopes would have never crept into the fans' minds, but the Rose Bowl's still the Grandaddy of Them All.
Don't jump off the bandwagon because Penn State can't finish No. 1. It's still been a great season and we're still the best student section there is. Hopefully, that's enough to bring everybody out of this funk. If not, at least keep your depression to yourself.
Paul Nordeman is a senior majoring in journalism and is The Daily Collegian's Wednesday columnist. His e-mail address is pjn5005@psu.edu.
