Penn State 2009, The Year of Championships?

(Photo by Joe Sargent/Getty Images)

This year has been rather successful for some of the Nittany Lion teams.  Of course, the football team had a very successful regular season aside from their upset loss at Iowa, but a disappointing performance in the Rose Bowl.

Then we have the teams that won championships for Penn State this year.  Penn State's women's volleyball team won the national title for the second-straight year, going undefeated this past season and only losing two total sets the entire season.

Most recently, the Penn State men's basketball program won the NIT Championship.  Many of you will say that the NIT is an inferior tournament and doesn't count for anything, which is completely false.

First of all, Penn State was robbed because they should have been in the tournament over Arizona or Wisconsin.

Second, the NIT Championship is still a huge accomplishment for two reasons.  The first is that Penn State basketball has not been successful, and thanks to Talor Battle, Stanley Pringle, and Jamelle Cornley along with a good supporting cast of Danny Morrissey, Chris Babb, David Jackson, Andrew Jones, and others, Penn State has restored some pride into its program.

Secondly, even though Penn State was robbed from the NCAA Tournament, they kept their concentration through the disappointment and won the NIT Championship.  Not only that, they did it with wins over quality teams like Florida, Notre Dame, and Baylor.

So, even though Penn State did not get what they deserved and were severely dissappointed, they still kept their winning spirit and plowed through tough competition on their way to a well deserved championship.

That leaves one question.  How will Penn State's football team fare?  With senior leader Daryll Clark and running back Evan Royster commanding the offense, and a rock-solid defense, hopefully Joe Pa and company will bring us a championship, or at least a BCS victory.

All the other championships are great, but as everyone knows, football is Penn State's main sport.  A national championship in football would hopefully restore pride to the Nittany Lions after the disaster at the Rose Bowl, and the Big 10 from all the losses in the big games.

So will 2009 truly be Penn State's year of championships?

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