I listen to college sports talk radio on Sirius XM channel 84 going to and from work and at lunch. It's been interesting to hear all the callers who want to talk about this Penn State game at Pittsburgh in September. The early line from Vegas has Pitt favored. Some of the callers are talking about this game being the benchmark for whether James Franklin can succeed at Penn State.

Being a Conference Realignment junky I was wondering if Penn State fans have satisfied their craving for a rival with Maryland and Rutgers. I now have my answer. Not at all. In fact Penn State still doesn't have any rival in the Big Ten after 25 years there. How awful that would be. I think Rivalries are extremely important.

Here's an article about that game from a few months ago. Some interesting points:

"No loss of any variety by Penn State in 2016 would sting as much as a defeat at Heinz. Not even a repeat defeat to Temple, in Beaver Stadium on Sept. 17. Been there, done that. No Big Ten defeat -- not even a fall at the hands of Rutgers or Maryland (1-1 vs. Penn State over the past two seasons) -- would be as big.

As it begins Year No. 24 in the Big Ten Conference, Penn State still does not have a real league rival. Ohio State and Michigan? No, they have each other. (And the Wolverines also have Sparty.) Rutgers and Maryland? No, not yet. They feel about Penn State like Penn State feels about Ohio State and Michigan. Unrequited hate."