ESPN's Thomas Neumann conducted an interesting study.

He looked at the number of non-conference games BCS schools have played against other BCS opponents, and his research revealed Penn State's percentage of games against BCS schools of .500 is ninth in the country.

I'm still trying to figure out what's worse: the logic that places equal weight with Penn State playing a team like, say, Syracuse as Ohio State receives for playing USC, or the fact that Penn State playing the likes of Coastal Carolina, Oregon State and Syracuse is on par with all but eight other BCS schools. It should be noted that only the 1998-2007 out-of-conference schedules were included, so this year's slate wasn't factored in. But the Nittany Lions' scheduling philosophy this year has been mirrored in recent years.

Neumann's research was clearly inexact since there's no possible fair way to measure out of conference games, but it was interesting nonetheless. Penn State has been roundly criticized for a soft out-of-conference schedule, but based on Neumann's study, Penn State is in line if not exceeding the national average.

Temple, by the way, was not included since the Owls weren't BCS members from 1998-2007.

-- Josh