With roses in hand, the Penn State football team left Beaver Stadium two Saturdays ago as champions of the Big Ten for the second time in four years.

The men of the gridiron weren't the only ones to capture conference crowns this fall, though. A trio of women's teams -- field hockey, volleyball and soccer -- have all won Big Ten titles in the past month, as well.

These four squads not only represent an impressive run for Penn State sports, but also the culmination of the careers of a dominant class of student-athletes. In fall 2005, the freshman season for this year's crop of seniors, each team of Nittany Lions won a Big Ten championship. Now, they're ending their time in Happy Valley just as they started it.

There's a lot of praise to go around. This sort of sports supremacy doesn't come easily. Obviously, the athletes deserve to be lauded for their ability and desire. This class of football players revived a struggling Penn State program, while volleyball proved to be the top team in the country after winning the national championship last year.

The coaches also need to be recognized. A certain bespectacled octogenarian gets a lot of well-deserved attention for his work, but Erica Walsh (soccer), Russ Rose (volleyball) and Char Morett (field hockey) have all molded their teams into Big Ten behemoths. Women's volleyball has won six straight conference championships and women's soccer has captured a staggering 11 consecutive titles.

Tim Curley, Penn State director of athletics, may receive some negative attention during the down years for the football and basketball teams, but his overall job in creating such an impressive group of teams goes largely unheralded nationally. Susan Delaney-Scheetz, associate athletic director and senior women's administrator, should also be commended given the outstanding success of the women's programs.

Curley has also been fairly progressive in some of his hirings, choosing Coquese Washington, a black woman, to replace the embattled Rene Portland and giving the reigns of both the men's and women's track and cross country teams to Beth Alford-Sullivan.

The field hockey and women's soccer teams have since been eliminated from their respective national tournaments, but postseason play for football and women's volleyball still remains.

The football team will be playing in the Rose Bowl, probably the most recognizable bowl outside the national championship game, and volleyball will once again be expected to go far in the national tournament.

The seniors on these teams may be leaving Penn State soon, but they will have left an indelible mark on their respective teams that will hopefully carry on to later generations.