On the Record: Penn State, steady as she goes

Wrapping up Big Ten Week. • Pas de deux. I struggled with each of these picks in pairs: Between Penn State and Ohio State at the top, Illinois and Iowa behind them, and so on through Michigan and Northwestern. There is no central insight there, only interesting that it worked out in such stratified tiers, and maybe that it provides some idea that I don't really see a difference between 1 and 2, 3 and 4, etc. But beginning from the top: I surprised myself a little by picking the Lions ahead of Ohio State, a toss-up I've been mentally conceding to the Buckeyes for months. Certainly the consensus has broken for Ohio State, based I guess on Terrelle Pryor's pending domination of everything. I'm very much aboard the Pryor hype train, but whatever earth-stopping, physics-defying theatrics he delivers as a sophomore, I'm equally confident in the steady, veteran hand of Daryll Clark on the other side, which after all was pretty clearly the best in the conference l...