I know that Penn State has to have seven home football games each season in order to fund its 29 athletic programs. Scheduling lower tier opponents who will come to Beaver Stadium without expecting a return visit from the Nittany Lions is one thing. But PSU’s non-conference home slate this year is a joke.

Sports Illustrated recently ranked Buffalo and Florida International and Buffalo as the 118th and 119th ranked teams heading into the 2007 campaign. There are only 119 Div. I programs in the nation. And next season isn’t any better. The Lions open the 2008 season with Div. I-AA Coastal Carolina, followed by Arkansas State.

Penn State is more than a five-touchdown favorite against Florida International, who started playing football in 2002. To put that into perspective: Joe Paterno was born three-quarters of a century before the Golden Panthers first fielded a team.

It’s bad enough that the Penn State faithful have to cough up lots of money to watch their team bulldoze these inferior opponents. You can also make a strong argument that it doesn’t help the Nittany Lions either. Does anybody honestly think that Florida International is going to prepare PSU for Notre Dame the following week? And just one week after running circles around Buffalo, Lions will travel to Ann Arbor and try to beat Michigan for the first time since 1996. -- Neil Geoghegan