The Punchline

Penn State is on the verge of becoming the butt of a joke as a result of being ranked the number two party school in the nation by Princeton Review. Today the Philadelphia Inquirer published a story not on the ranking, but on Penn State football. Yet, the ranking was obliquely referred to in a joking way in the lede.

The 21,000 student tickets available for each of Penn State's seven home football games sold in June like kegs on homecoming weekend, consumed in a record 13 days, two months quicker than in 2005.

You can be sure that Spanier is not happy with this turn of events. All of his spin which has been carefully crafted to give Penn State the patina of gravitas is being overshadowed by the revelation of the gritty reality of life at University Park. Will Spanier respond in a substantive way or will he try to spin his way out of this problem? My money is on spin.