EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Minutes after Daryll Clark and his teammates sent a message with an emphatic victory, the small contingent of Penn State fans hoped to do the same.
As the quarterback ran along the sideline and slapped hands with fans in the corner of the end zone to the chants of "DC" at Spartan Stadium, those same fans soon started yelling something different: "BCS."
But the question now is whether a 42-14 road victory against a now-.500 Michigan State team is enough to cap off the resume, especially with an Orange Bowl representative watching.
"Are we better than X, Y and Z? I don't know," Penn State head coach Joe Paterno said after the game. "I think we can play with anybody. Now whether somebody is going to take us or not in a BCS bowl, I don't have any control over that."
The Nittany Lions occupied the No. 14 slot in the BCS rankings entering the regular season finale, leaving them in the last spot to be eligible for at-large consideration. With Ohio State going to the Rose Bowl as the outright conference champion, that means only one other Big Ten team can go to the BCS, and that would be as an at-large.
With Wisconsin's loss to Northwestern on Saturday, that showdown for a potential final Big Ten selection looks to be with No. 13 Iowa. Both the Hawkeyes and Lions are 10-2, but Iowa has the head-to-head edge thanks to its win this season at Beaver Stadium.
And that's where the lobbying could get difficult.
"It's tough to do," receiver Graham Zug said about making an argument in the Penn State-Iowa case. "I really don't know how to do it. Both have great fans -- we might have a little bit more of a fan following since our stadium's bigger. But it's a tough choice."
Defensive tackle Ollie Ogbu said he watched some of Iowa's 12-0 victory against Minnesota before Penn State's game and that his argument for Penn State is that it finished the season strong. The Lions did win their last two after losing to Ohio State while the Hawkeyes lost two of their final three.
Plus, Penn State did put up 42 points against the Spartans, the most it has scored against a conference foe since the Lions put up 49 points last season also against Michigan State.
"I would just say, take a shot on us, you know?" Ogbu said. "Take a shot on us and we won't disappoint you."
Of course, the whole Penn State-Iowa debate might get even more complicated. The Fiesta Bowl likely will lose its Big 12 Champion tie-in -- Texas -- to the national title game if the No. 3 Longhorns win out. If the Fiesta Bowl wants to keep it regional, Oklahoma State and its No. 12 ranking is the only other option from the Big 12. In this case, the Orange Bowl would be the likely destination for a second Big Ten team, thus leaving the decision in its hands in such a situation.
However, with both the Lions and Hawkeyes now sitting on their couches until the bowls, it comes down to watching the Cowboys and another at-large contender like Boise State attempt to notch wins. In other words, Penn State had to make its last push to selection committees well before almost everyone else.
"What do you do?" Paterno said about staying relevant during all the time off. "I could jump off the roof of my house. I don't think there's any way to do it until we change the format of the scheduling in the Big Ten. Or as I've tried to say several times, add a 12th team and have a division championship."
Interestingly, for as often as Paterno brings up this problem, this does allow Penn State to sit back and possibly see teams ranked ahead of it lose to boost its ranking. But just like the selection process, everything else is out of the Lions' hands.
"It's not up to us," center Stefen Wisniewski said. "We're just going to sit around and wait and hope."
