Sunday night ketchup

No surprise in the BCS rankings. MSU still trails Ohio State and Rose Bowl-bound Wisconsin. I wouldn't advise anyone to reserve a flight to Orlando just yet, but a price check might not be a bad idea.

    All of our Penn State coverage from Saturday can be found here. In the column, the question is how MSU was able to win this game despite those late mistakes. Late mistakes just like those have led to many a memorable MSU collapse in the past. This team shrugged it off, caught the onside kick, carried on with the celebration. It was a perfect illustration of the difference between MSU then and now. Lucy has stopped yanking the football away at the last second.

    Along those lines, David Jones expresses the outside view of this program, then and now.

    Speaking of views, Rod Sanford joined the Magical Mystery Tour to State College and came away with great shots as usual. Here's a gallery from MSU football's first championship afternoon since "Home Alone" was a world-wide cinematic sensation.

    In other Big Ten football news, Indiana has fired Bill Lynch. Thumbs down from me on that move. And the day after he wins at Purdue.

    Basketball. MSU beat Tennessee Tech 73-55 today in a triple-decker hero sandwich game -- after Maui and before Duke. We'll have coverage Monday, but in the meantime, our Cash Kruth passed along this Tom Izzo quote on Derrick Nix's return:

    "It doesn't get remedied over night. It's not like someone snaps their fingers and it's done. He's got some issues and we're going to try to get him a little bit of time but he has to prove and earn that dedication to this program and these players. I'd be the first to tell you I do think we would've beaten UConn if he would have played.

    "It's not the coaches; he let down the players. He's still a work in progress and if he wants to really work, he's going to be a good player. If he doesn't …  Sometimes there's things that are beyond what we can control and sometimes I don't have a good answer. We did plan today, we did meet with him, and he said some of the right things but I usually like guys that walk it, not talk it, so we'll see as the next couple weeks go on if he's walking or just talking."

    There you go. What a week. And on Monday, attention turns to Duke.