In a college football world where scheduling is talked about as much as recruiting in the offseason, Penn State coach Joe Paterno explained, sort of, why his team's non-conference schedule looks rather paltry this year.

Part of it is Penn State's fault. Part of it isn't. Not that Paterno really cares either way.

When Penn State scheduled Syracuse, the Orange still had former Nittany Lion Paul Pasqualoni as their head coach. While he wasn't putting up 10-win seasons every year, SU was at least a formidable opponent and a natural rival.

This was all before Syracuse athletic director Jake Crouthamel retired and the school hired Daryl Gross. Gross almost immediately fired Pasqualoni and replaced him with Greg Robinson, now the defensive coordinator at Michigan. All of this turned a program that had been a consistent winner in the Big East, even when Miami and Virginia Tech still played in the league into, well, the league's version of a stress doll.

Temple, coached by Al Golden, was another team Paterno scheduled because Golden is a former player and Temple is in state. And Akron isn't the worst team in the Mid-American Conference.

"It's a Philadelphia game," Paterno said, referencing Temple even though the game will be in State College. "We don't have to make excuses for that. We'll have our troubles with Akron. Akron is a well-coached football team. They do well. They're recruiting well."

Playing Eastern Illinois is a yawner but not out of character for a lot of top teams around the country.

Paterno also made sure to explain, multiple times, that you never tell when a team is going to surprise people. Heck, look at Ball State and Buffalo last year.

"You don't know. Look at what's happened the last couple years with people in their opening games, that they've gotten licked because somebody thought that the team that they were playing wasn't very good. I don't know how good anybody else is," Paterno said. "I don't know how good we are right now. We haven't played a game. I haven't seen these guys play a game yet. So for me to get up here and worry about what people think about our non-conference schedule, hey, you guys have got to talk about something."

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for annarbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558 or by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com.