Rumor mill, revved up: PSU eyeing Mizzou, Utah?

◊ So the rumor mill is starting to redline already, specifically speaking of Penn State's Oct. 10 non-conference matchup against Eastern Illinois (I-AA/FCS) possibly being replaced by a BCS conference opponent. This would be great, but we haven't heard much outside of the blogs, and one unsubstantiated bit by the Allentown Morning Call. Remember a few years ago, when Penn State was supposedly trying to schedule TCU? Yeah, how'd that turn out?

Some of the message boards this week threw around the possibility that an ACC team, North Carolina particularly, could be swapped in for EIU. That would make some sense, as it would be beneficial for both teams' recruiting along the east coast. But I was very surprised, if not baffled, to hear this from Rock M Nation today (actually, it was a 'fanshot' posted Jan. 23):

"Aside from some ACC teams, the two other teams strongly speculated to be in negotiation are Utah and the Missouri Tigers."

Uh, ok... I realize this is about as credible as a message board post, but luckily the blog's author doused some of the flames:

"I'd love to see it happen... but I’ve got a feeling it won’t on multiple accounts... Missouri AD Mike Alden has already said he’s pursuing an FCS team to fill the open slot in Missouri’s schedule vacated by the removal of SMU from the schedule. (RIght now, Missouri is actually sitting on 11 opponents, not 12.)... Missouri won’t go for the 2-for-1 because of the neutral site games mentioned above, which are already hurting the Columbia area enough as it is. Missouri already declined a 2-for-1 offer from Notre Dame recently, and I think the Missouri program is starting to view itself highly enough to feel it shouldn’t have to accept a 2-for-1 deal from anyone... Something tells me Nevada doesn’t want out of the home game in Reno..."

The strongest indicator that this won't happen between Mizzou and PSU, is that both teams want another home game, and you can't do both in 2009. However, you could turn that right around, and say that Penn State already has eight home games in 2009, so it wouldn't be outrageous to take the trip to Columbia, for a return trip in 2010. That would create a dynamite opening schedule that season, with a home/season opener against Missouri, followed immediately by a trip to Tuscaloosa. If that happens, that's the kind of schedule that wins big BCS points.

For now, we can't know exactly what will happen, which basically means this entire post was pointless and a waste of time. But what else is there to do right now?