What If...

As we wind down the final weeks of the NFL season, and teams are lopped off each week, we get closer and closer to the Super Bowl.

With the final four set with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Baltimore Ravens, Philadelphia Eagles, and Arizona Cardinals, every fan starts to envision a perfect Super Sunday match up.

My question is: Should there be an All-Pennsylvania Super Bowl, what if the Big Game was moved from the sunny shores of Tampa, Florida to the snowy domain of Beaver Stadium, the home of the Penn State Nittany Lions, in State College, Pennsylvania ?

Personally, I am sick of the fact that we will probably never see any Super Bowl in the snow or the cold ever again. I understand that hosting the Super Bowl in these warm climates is a nice break for the players who play in the cold week after week, but you have to break up the monotony of sunshine state Super Bowls and at least break them up with occasional games in the cold or snow.

As a coach, this type of move would mean your team would have fewer distractions in State College than they would in, say, Tampa, or Miami (the site of next year's Bowl) and more overall focus on hitting the weights and blocks, and less on hitting the beach. Besides, if your players want to hit the beach, they can wait it out until the Pro Bowl, which might as well be beach flag football.

Not only would this break the monotony, but it would also draw more attention from the fans. There would be more interest in seeing the Steelers and Eagles play in their home state, in the snow, in what would probably go down as an epic, defensive, struggle. There is also the fact that you could put more people in the stadium as well. The current site, Raymond James Stadium, holds just over 66,000 people, while Beaver Stadium holds just over 107,000 and can reach 110,000 on big game days.

Think about that: Beaver Stadium can hold almost two full Raymond James Stadiums' worth of people. Plus, at the rate that Super Bowl tickets usually go for, there is a fortune of money to be made just by selling the 110,000 seats, before any sort of parking payment, concessions, or advertisements are even factored in. Not to mention, it would also do wonders for the State College economy.

Beaver stadium would also be able to be a neutral field, positioned 3 hours away from both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, droves of both loyal fan bases would much rather make that trip than one that would require a lot of flying. You could sell 35% of the tickets in Philadelphia, 35% in Pittsburgh, and distribute the rest which ever way you wanted. That way, you would have a good number of loyal fans from each fanbase there, while still not excluding the rest of the country.

As for what Penn State gets out of this, they can receive a cut of the money made from the event, and will see the town around the university be booming economically by the large amount of people there for the biggest game in all of American sports.

While it is probably too late to be able to change anything now, plus the fact that if the locale was changed now the people of Tampa would probably not be too happy about it, this idea will go to waste. However, it is still a possibility for future Super Sundays, just change up the college stadium or pro stadium that would replace Beaver Stadium in my scenario.

Still...an All-PA Super Bowl at Beaver Stadium would be really nice...

What I Learned Today

So I have my first day back at school tomorrow, and what better way to prepare than spending all day watching sports?

I was able to watch the Baltimore Ravens dominate the Miami Dolphins to advance on to the next round of the AFC race, while my Philadelphia Eagles held on and used a late Brian Westbrook touchdown to beat the Minnesota Vikings. I also caught the final ten minutes of Boston College's upset of #1 North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

Now, the Ravens-Dolphins game showed me once again that the Ravens' defense is back and as dominant as it was in their Super Bowl run of 2001. Every year this defense just seemingly reloads with talent, though when Ray Lewis takes his final bow his replacement will have some giant-sized shoes to fill. The game also reminded me how freakishly good Ed Reed is. You will undoubtedly see the highlight of his two picks on the day. Also, the Ravens clearly made the right pick of Joe Flacco. It seems like they finally have a quarterback who can pilot an offense well enough that the defense is no longer the sole means of scoring.

What surprised me with the Eagles-Vikings game was that the Eagles went into halftime with a two point lead thanks to three David Akers field goals and an Asante Samuel pick-six, and did not let that lead shrink anymore. They kept up their solid defense against the run, and did not allow Adrian Peterson any other big plays. The Birds also put more pressure on Tarvaris Jackson, who kept up the trend of young quarterbacks showing great poise thus far in the playoffs, and forced several wild throws and should-be-interceptions. Bravo, Birds, and on to the Meadowlands and the New York Giants.

Finally, I'm still shocked that Boston College knocked off unanimous #1 North Carolina. It will be interesting to see how far the Heels fall, though I do see this as being a "wake up" moment that will spur the Heels on for the rest of the season. The loss, combined with Pitt's drubbing of Georgetown, should ultimately give the Pittsburgh Panthers some much-needed exposure as the new #1.