Nittany news and notes: No. 1 seed in NCAA tournament, Mike Rhoades’ message, and more

After beating Nebraska in the regular season finale at Rec Hall to claim a share of the Big Ten title, Penn State women’s volleyball was awarded the No. 3 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, and the No. 1 seed in the upper right regional of the bracket. 

The Nittany Lions will host Delaware State in the first round at Rec Hall on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. Delaware State earned an automatic bid into the tournament by beating Howard for the MEAC Championship. The winner of Penn State and Delaware State will play the winner of North Carolina and Yale, which play at 5 p.m. at Rec Hall on Friday. Both North Carolina and Yale’s head coaches, Mike Schall and Erin Appleman were assistant coaches at Penn State under Russ Rose in 1999 when current Penn State head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley won a national championship as a player. 

North Carolina earned an at-large bid while Yale was an automatic qualifier as the Ivy League champion. 

Mike Rhoades’ message for fans ahead of Big Ten opener

Penn State men’s basketball is off to a hot start, now 7-1 on the year after beating Buffalo 87-64 on Sunday at the Bryce Jordan Center. On Thursday, the Nittany Lions will open Big Ten play at the BJC against No. 8 Purdue with tipoff set for 6:30 p.m. 

While it’s still early, it could be the team’s biggest home game of the season against last year’s conference champs. So, Rhoades wants a big showing from the Penn State fans and had a message for them in his early week press conference. 

“Show up and sweat with us right?” Rhoades said, “A Big Ten game, that’s the fun of it. These are the experiences that, as a college student, they have a lot of fun. Our players will be fired up to play against one of the best programs in the country for the last 10 years.” 

Purdue is also 7-1 with its only loss coming to now No. 5 Marquette. 

More: Oregon’s tremendous resources

Ahead of their matchup in the Big Ten Championship Game in Indianapolis on Saturday, Penn State head coach James Franklin complimented Oregon and its third-year head coach Dan Lanning. 

“Coach Lanning has done a great job there,” Franklin told reporters in his early week press conference, “Dan’s taken it to the next level, they’ve done a phenomenal job. It’s also a place with tremendous resources as well, and they’ve built that thing to compete at the highest level.”

In modern college football with NIL driving success in the sport, every moment is an opportunity to appeal to potential donors and fundraise for your program. Oregon has long been backed by Nike, with the company’s headquarters in Eugene, and Franklin knows that Penn State needs to compete with those resources to compete in the Big Ten. So, conference championship week is a great chance to appeal to your donor’s pride and lay out the potential disadvantage that Penn State is at compared to Oregon.