Tuesday Morning Quarterback slams Penn State

And rightly so.

Gregg Easterbrook, the Brookings Institute Scholar who doubles as the Tuesday Morning Quarterback on ESPN.com, awards Penn State his Gimmick Schedule of the Year.

Here is what he wrote:

"It's tempting to confer the 2009 Gimmick Sked of the Year distinction on Oklahoma State. The Cowboys not only play eight games at home and four away -- they open with five of six at home! But the 2009 Tuesday Morning Quarterback Gimmick Sked of the Year winner is Penn State. Not only do the Nittany Lions play twice as many games at home as away; not only do they fearlessly face, at home, Akron, Syracuse (which enters this season on a 7-29 streak), Temple (which enters this season on a 10-25 streak) and Eastern Illinois; Penn State starts the season with four consecutive home games, the first three against Akron, Syracuse and Temple. Penn State may have the single phoniest schedule any football power has ever cooked up. This causes TMQ no small amount of consternation, as I have long rooted for Joe Paterno to best Bobby Bowden for most career coaching wins, and admired that Penn State football consistently posts better graduation rates than most big-time football schools, including Florida State. When the Seminoles became embroiled this spring in yet another cheating scandal, this seemed to cement TMQ's preference for Paterno over Bowden. But now I check the card and see the Nittany Lions playing a gimmicked cupcake sked, while Florida State has six games at home, six away, and only one dubious opponent: Jacksonville State. On the field this year, Florida State is for real while Penn State is pulling a cheap stunt. Penn State athletic department, how did you think your rigged sked -- perhaps planned to put Paterno over the top in his final campaign -- would go unnoticed?"

Hard to argue with that.

Of course, Penn State would argue that it needs a scheduled larded with home games to pay for its sports programs and that you can only attract lousy teams to your stadium without promising a reciprocal date.

But still, Eastern Illinois? That's embarrassing,