Penn State Football: What Is a Realistic Timeline for a National Title?

Penn State won two national championships in the 1980s, and made as good a case for one in 1994 as any team could possibly make. But since that undefeated season in the mid-90s Penn State has been a program looking to end a championship drought that few people predicted when they joined the Big Ten.

While we are talking about whether Notre Dame, Miami, Florida State or Michigan will be first to once again claim a national championship, why not also ask what a realistic time line for the next national championship at Penn State looks like? Nobody has a crystal ball of course, but there are some answers that we can explore to try and put some pieces together.

The first question is rather obvious.

Is Bill O'Brien the Coach Penn State Needs to Reach the Pinnacle?

It is widely considered that replacing a legend at a coaching position is an unenviable task, and given the circumstances in which Joe Paterno was removed as head coach, nobody expected his ultimate successor to be the guy to be the one who returns Penn State to the top of the Big Ten—let alone nation—college football mountain.

But a funny thing seems to have happened. Bill O'Brien started turning some heads with his recruiting for the Class of 2013, headlined by the verbal commitment of tight end Adam Breneman. The jury is still out on O'Brien as a head coach, who has yet to take on head coaching responsibilities on game day.

Can Penn State Win the Recruiting Battles Against Urban Meyer?

The odds are pretty good that unless Penn State can stay ahead of Ohio State in head-to-head competition, a shot at a national championship are mediocre at best. With the Buckeyes now captained by Urban Meyer, with two national championships on his resume, and already recognized as one of the best funded programs, it is expected that Ohio State will be a mighty force to be reckoned with as long as Meyer is on the job.

Each time Penn State has won the Big Ten's automatic bid since joining the conference they have defeated Ohio State.

Will the University and Athletic Department Push for a National Championship?

For years, football at Penn State has been run without much of an emphasis on building for a national championship. True, the school and program were always about success with honor under Paterno, who focused more on molding men rather than necessarily building a national championship-caliber program.

It is not because Paterno and Penn State have not wanted to win a national title. This is an athletic program that has put together national championship programs in wrestling, fencing and volleyball and is hoping to build a foundation in ice hockey in the coming years.

But the perception some fans have is that as long as 100,000 tickets were sold for games on Saturday, all was fine. With a change in leadership, perhaps that has changed.

In the Big Ten the formula for putting together a national championship contender's resume is simple. First and foremost, any Big Ten school must go undefeated in conference play. While the Big Ten is one of the top conferences in the country, a Big Ten school cannot afford a loss in the regular season the way an SEC school could.

Then, of course, winning the non-conference games, preferably with a key game against a school form another BCS AQ conference member.

Can Penn State go undefeated this fall? Sure, although it is not the most likely scenario.

Kevin McGuire is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report and the managing editor of Nittany Lions Den. Follow him on Twitter, like him on Facebook and add him to your Google+ circle.