Youngstown State to play Penn State in '06

The Penguins and Nittany Lions will meet Sept. 16 in State College, Pa.
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Youngstown State football team will play its first game against an opponent from the Big Ten next fall when the Penguins travel to State College, Pa., to take on Penn State. The Penguins and Nittany Lions will play at Beaver Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 16.
YSU athletic director Ron Strollo said playing against a perennial power and historic program like Penn State increases the national exposure for the university.
"This is a great opportunity for our school to play against one of the most prestigious institutions in the country when it comes to college football," Strollo said. "We are grateful for the chance to play Penn State, and I know everyone involved with our football family is excited as I am to compete against a school from the Big Ten on the gridiron for the first time."
Heacock excited
YSU coach Jon Heacock is also excited about playing the Nittany Lions.
"I like it," Heacock said. "It forces us to step up and to cross that line to the next level of competition.
"It will help recruiting and it will help us in our own conference since most of our teams step out to take on some major competition," he added.
"Obviously it will be a great venue to play in and of course it is a Big Ten team and that puts a sense of urgency into our program now that we have to get going right now and start preparing for this meeting," Heacock added.
Juggle schedules
Both schools had to do some schedule juggling to make the matchup possible.
The Nittany Lions were scheduled to play Louisiana Tech for that Saturday while YSU was scheduled to travel to Northeastern. However, Louisiana Tech opted out of the contest and the Penguins were able to reschedule the game against the Huskies in Boston for a future season.
Penn State is the Big Ten's automatic qualifier into this year's BCS following a 10-1 campaign, which included a 7-1 mark in conference play. The Nittany Lions are ranked third in the final USA Today Coaches and Associated Press Polls. Penn State will play Florida State in the FedEx Orange Bowl on Jan. 3.
On 39 occasions, Youngstown State has played a Division I-A opponents since moving to the Division I-AA ranks in 1981. YSU is 19-19-1 all-time against I-A schools and played its first-ever game against a member of the Big East Conference, Pittsburgh, this past season.
Shared Gateway title
YSU is coming off an 8-3 campaign in which it was 5-2 in the Gateway Football Conference tying playoff semifinalist Northern Iowa and playoff quarterfinalist Southern Illinois for the league title. The only other loss in 2005 was at Pitt.
The remainder of the Penguins' 2006 season will be announced shortly.