Penn State Football: Nittany Lions' Players Skipping Media Days Is Right Move

The Big Ten media days begin tomorrow and continue through to Friday. Friday's highlight is the player interviews, where each team brings three players (seniors and/or high-profile players, usually) who answer questions to any passing journalist for a couple hours.

One of those teams is Penn State and—surprise!—Penn State's in the news a little bit. So, doubtlessly, Penn State's players were going to be overwhelmed with questions about the sanctions facing the program, the prospect of players transferring and even the prospect of they themselves transferring. And let's be clear: Scheduled guest Silas Redd hasn't exactly slammed the door shut on that one.

Thus, it wasn't terribly surprising when, on Wednesday afternoon, Penn State decided to nix the idea of subjecting its players to all that. Per the ESPN Big Ten blog's Twitter feed:

"

No Penn State players will attend Big Ten media days. Silas Redd, John Urschel and Jordan Hill had been scheduled to attend.

— Rittenberg/Bennett (@ESPN_BigTen) July 25, 2012"

Of course, this has national media up in arms. The Chicago Tribune's Teddy Greenstein called it "weak," and CBSSports.com's Dennis Dodd raised the specter of the "free flow of information," as if civilization and democracy as we know them were directly threatened. 

So, a reality check: This is a fluff PR event.

These schools are allowed to not send players if they really don't want to (in nearly all circumstances they do, because, again: fluff). So if Penn State has a choice as to whether or not reporters hector Silas Redd and his friends about whether they really want to play for the school that sent them to the conference, well, it's an easy choice.

Moreover, leaving the Penn State players alone with 11 other teams' players and coaches? Penn State's not stupid enough to think that those guys won't be hounded with recruiting offers.

Penn State can know that for a fact, because Illinois reportedly sent half a dozen coaches to State College to go hang out in the Lasch Building parking lot to wait for players to come out, according to ESPN's Joe Schad and Don Van Natta Jr. And Illinois wasn't the only team with coaches there, according to the report.

So yes, the danger is out there. And even if Penn State's dead certain the players aren't going to be swayed, why even put them through that in the first place, either?

All in all, there's a negative experience waiting for Penn State players at the media days, and it's optional. Penn State doesn't owe it to the press to trot out players if it doesn't have to. And any reporter who claims otherwise is just sad that they don't get their way on this one. Whatever.

At the very least, Bill O'Brien is still coming to media days. And if he gets more than even one question about why he's keeping the players at home during his 15-minute interview session, I'm going to throw my recorder at someone.