PENN-sieve

You may have learned that the Earth revolves around the sun but in the Penn State world, we revolve around Beaver Stadium - home of Nittany Lion football.

Three or so weeks ago, I was eating lunch in the Commons and noticed everyone stopped eating and watched a student get his food and sit down. Who was this student? Paul P., defensive linebacker. The people watching him then had a conversation about what he was eating!

Today was the first home game of the season (PSU vs Akron - we won!). Normally this would have been the second day of move in but since it was a home football game, we had to change arrival to Wednesday and Thursday. While we are a "student focused university" (one of the institution's goals according to the President), we made all the students who were parked in the Flower Garden Lot (the one closest to the stadium) move their cars by 4pm on Friday or they would be towed. We had to make room for the tailgaters!

The stadium seats 107,282 people - it is the second largest sports stadium in the country (missed first by a little over 1,000 seats). Normally an additional 100,000 tailgate so they say on football weekends, State College becomes the third largest city in Pennsylvania. Football tickets sold out quickly because we won the Orange Bowl last year. Our student section (voted number 1 in the country) only seats 20,000 so all the students did not get tickets - their season pass costs $180. I was assigned with two of my colleagues to plan alternative ways for our students to watch the game. We organized a big screen watching event complete with prizes and food.

The game started at 330pm so I awoke this morning and wanted to go to the gym. Now if all of the gym facilities are at capacity, only 400 or so people can be working out - 400 people not watching football you would think that would be okay but you would be wrong. The fitness centers do not open on football weeekends until after the game!