The Pennsylvania State University (commonly known as Penn State) is a state-related, land-grant university. The University has 24 campuses throughout the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, including a virtual World Campus. The enrollment at Penn State is over 84,000 students, placing it among the ten largest public universities in the United States.
Despite widespread success in the overall athletic program, however, the school is best known for its Penn State football team, which draws a very large following.
Penn State's Beaver Stadium has the second largest seating capacity (over 107,282) of any stadium in the nation, behind only Michigan Stadium.
The football team is led by legendary coach Joe Paterno, who at 81 is in his 42nd year as head coach (as of the 2007 season). He is the second all-time winning coach in Division I-A history (trailing Bobby Bowden of Florida State)
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The student section at Beaver Stadium, recognized by ESPN’s College Gameday as the best in college football, has turned heads again with a sellout of more than 21,000 season tickets in a remarkable 59 minutes for the 2007 season.
The 21,000-plus student season tickets are the second-largest number in college sports (the school made an additional 520 student season tickets available this year compared to 2006).
Penn State has approximately 90,000 season ticket holders overall, also among the largest in the nation.
The passionate, loyal and enthusiastic Penn State student section is a primary reason Beaver Stadium is one of the nation’s toughest venues for opposing teams.
In a commencement speech a few years ago Joe Paterno said, "Success without honor is an unseasoned dish. It will satisfy your hunger, but it won’t taste good.” Penn State adopted from that speech a slogan that goes "Success with Honor". Paterno has applied this to his coaching and teaching philosophy and it’s the reason why Penn State fans feel so much pride in their team....
The start of Penn State's season is near and fans have different expectations for the team this year. Some say a National Championship, others say the Champs Sports Bowl either way, we should expect a great season this year with big wins and a possible upset or two.
If the opening week of the college football season is any indication of what the year may bring, then we're in for when heck of a ride.
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