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5 Reasons Why a Philadelphia Sports Blog Writes About Penn State
Published:
An Instagram user wrote that “PSU should not be posted on a Philly page” in response to our story about a BetMGM customer putting $200,000 on Penn State to win it all. This is in football, by the way, not wrestling, in which a $200k bet might actually make sense. Otherwise, you’d be better off lighting your money on fire, considering that Big Game James Franklin is still in charge and Drew Allar has an entirely new group of receivers coming in via the transfer portal, making the downfield passing game once again a total wild card.
Putting that off to the side, I will explain why a Philly sports blog writes about Penn State.
1) For starters, it must be accepted that the city vs. suburbs topic is so flimsy and overrated. Philadelphia, like most American cities, anchors a large, connected, multi-state metropolitan area that, according to the U.S. census, includes 11 total counties. That’s Bucks, Montco, Delco, Chesco, and Philly on the PA side, Camden, Burlington, Salem, and Gloucester in South Jersey, then New Castle County in Delaware and Cecil County in Maryland. This entire region is full of culturally-similar Eagles, Phillies, Flyers, and Sixers fans, and being a stickler for geographic lines paints one into a relatively pointless corner. St. Joe’s, for instance, is technically within the Philadelphia city limits, while also being 15 feet from Montco. La Salle is closer to Cheltenham than Center City. Villanova has banners hanging inside Xfinity Mobile Arena and played every home game there the last time they won it all, using kids from Great Valley, Salesianum, Archbishop Wood, and Neumann-Goretti.
Furthermore, inner Delco is closer in distance to the sports complex than Northeast Philadelphia, so who are the diehard “local” fans in that case? Is it the group of guys from Parkwood, or Upper Darby? A question for the philosophers, no doubt!
2) That being established, the Penn State branch campuses in Montco and Delco are two of the largest in the Commonwealth. PSU Abington enrolled 2,899 students in 2024, third behind Harrisburg and Erie, while Brandywine’s 1,236 students was sixth most. If you combine those two numbers, it’s about the same total enrollment as La Salle. St. Joe’s has about 5,000 undergrads and 2,000 grad students, so a little larger there. Enrollment will never match that of Temple, Penn, or Drexel, but there is absolutely a Penn State student presence in this area.
The Wall Street Journal did a study back in 2018, to determine which cities attract alumni from American universities. The data shows that 19.1% of Penn State alumni end up in the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area, while 8.6% go to New York and 7.8% to Yinzerville. Similarly, 2024 university data shows that 19,213 alumni live in Philadelphia county, while a combined 92,000 live in Bucks, Montco, Delco, and Chesco. Combined, that is more than 110,000 Penn State alumni in a five-county area of about 4 million people, which doesn’t even include, for instance, the parents of graduates who now support the school their kid went to. So it’s safe to estimate that this number goes much higher in the main PA suburbs, while Berks and Lehigh Counties add another 23,000 alumni. And sports fans in those border counties, who read sites like Crossing Broad and PhillyVoice, largely support Philadelphia teams, hence cross-pollination between Penn State locals and the four Philly majors.
3) PSU football is really good. Best program in the Commonwealth, light years ahead of Pitt and Temple, which, admittedly, isn’t much of a bar to clear. But for all of the talk about Big Game James and other shortcomings, this is a PSU squad that has done everything but win a national title in recent years. Going back 10 years now, they have 94 wins, 37 losses, two Fiesta Bowl wins, a Cotton Bowl, and a Rose Bowl. It’s six ten-win seasons going back to 2016. Temple, Pitt, and we’ll throw regional Rutgers in the mix, too, have 11 ten-win seasons going all the way back to 1970. And while Penn State has its share of poser fans that didn’t go to the school and couldn’t point to Centre County on a map, there’s more justification in supporting the Commonwealth’s flagship university as a PA resident, vs., say, climbing onto the Notre Dame bandwagon like a 97.5 the Fanatic host who will remain unnamed (it’s Kevin Cooney).
4) Historically, Crossing Broad site traffic data shows that more people are clicking on Penn State stories than Big 5 basketball stories. That’s been the case since Nova won it all back in 2018. So while there’s a responsibility to spend time on Saint Joe’s and La Salle and Drexel and the local schools that traditionally don’t get a lot of coverage, the truth is that they’ve been bang average or worse in recent seasons, and haven’t justified a lot of eyeballs simply for their win/loss records and on-court performances.
The nature of site traffic is cyclical, of course, and if we get another Jameer Nelson or Tyrone Garland moment, then maybe the Big 5 reclaims some of the college pie from Penn State, but that’s probably not going to happen in 2025.
5) Penn State recruits the Philadelphia area and typically has a strong contingent of local kids on the team. Last year, for instance, their best player, Adbul Carter, was a La Salle high school kid. Nick Singleton played at Mifflin. Nick Dawkins is from the Allentown area and Drew Shelton is a Downingtown guy. They had a half-dozen freshmen and sophomores in the pipeline from Bonner and Imhotep and a bunch of New Jersey kids as well. There’s always a connection to this region via the underrated high school football scene, which in itself does not get a lot of coverage.
Anyway, people act like the Delco, Montco, and Bucks borders are the North Korea and South Korea demilitarized zones, when, in reality, there is so much bleed across the lines. Penn State alumni live in Philly and South Jersey and Temple alumni live in Montco and all over the region. There are many people who commute into the city and many who reverse commute to the suburbs as well. Treating the city and the suburbs like different countries makes no sense at all. It’s kind of like the anti-soccer “Union don’t play in Philadelphia” argument, which is insultingly vapid. If that’s true, then the Giants and Jets aren’t New York teams because MetLife is in New Jersey, and the San Francisco 49ers aren’t a San Francisco team because they play in Santa Clara. Furthermore, acting like Philadelphia proper is some monolith is equally myopic. Let’s not pretend that Society Hill and Mayfair have anything in common, because they don’t, other than being located in Philadelphia County. What is Roxborough compared to Bridesburg? Nothing, they’re entirely different neighborhoods. Same with Manayunk and Bustleton, and Point Breeze and Fox Chase.
WE ARE! Going to write about Penn State even though they will inevitably lose to Ohio State and disappoint everyone in the playoffs. Over 10.5 wins and a playoff quarterfinal loss – LOCK IT IN! It’s money in the bank baby! A stone cold, lead pipe lock! Then you spend it on PA casino apps.
Play the song! Zombie Nation! It’s a white out!
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com