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Is there some sort of conspiracy against Penn State involving Big Ten officials?

You'd probably have to be wearing aluminum foil on your head right now to actually believe in such a thing. But the Nittany Lions have felt they've been on the wrong side of too many calls this season, and a key fumble ruling in Saturday's 32-23 loss at Nebraska only added to the frustration, especially for senior quarterback Matt McGloin.

“

We're not going to get that call here. We're not going to get that call ever, actually, against any team. It doesn't matter who the refs are. That's the way it is.

” -- Penn State QB Matt McGloin

To reset: Penn State was driving in for a go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter when McGloin hit tight end Matt Lehman for a short pass from the Nebraska 3. Lehman was hit and fumbled the ball into the end zone, where the Huskers recovered for a touchback. However, replays appeared to show that Lehman broke the plane with the ball before it got knocked loose. Penn State definitely thought it was a touchdown, but the call was upheld after an official review.

After the game, referee John O’Neill issued this statement: “The ruling on the field was a fumble short of the goal line. It went to replay and the replay official said the play stood based on the views he had. It’s ultimately his decision.”

McGloin could barely contain his frustration in a postgame interview, which you can watch here in a video taped by Audrey Snyder.

"We're not going to get that call here," McGloin told reporters. "We're not going to get that call ever, actually, against any team. It doesn't matter who the refs are. That's the way it is."

When asked why he said that, McGloin responded, "Why do you think? That's the way it is, man. Write what you think."

McGloin later said that the team had an us-against-the-world mentality and knew that it was "not going to get any help whatsoever" from the officials. He also tweeted out a slow-motion video of the play.

The clear implication here is that McGloin believes Penn State is still being punished for the Jerry Sandusky scandal and NCAA probation. Head coach Bill O'Brien was asked if he thought there was some kind of conspiracy to make Penn State lose.

"We don't feel like anyone is out to get us," O'Brien said.

You can't blame McGloin for being upset with losing such a tough game on the road, and maybe it was just the heat of the moment getting to him. But there is a genuine feeling among some Penn State fans that the team has not gotten its share of breaks this season.

Cornerback Stephon Morris had a more levelheaded response when asked about the controversial call.

"The referees did the best they could, but we put ourselves in that situation," he said. "We could have gotten some more third-down stops, we could have stopped [Nebraska quarterback Taylor] Martinez and we could have stopped the run. You can't leave the game in the referees' hands. We know that. They're not perfect. Nobody's perfect. That's just on us."

1. Something to keep in mind as No. 4 Kansas State attempts to frustrate No. 13 West Virginia on Saturday: The Wildcats have allowed one touchdown of longer than 20 yards this season, and not until last Saturday against Iowa State. That’s one fewer than the West Virginia defense has scored. The Mountaineers offense has 14 offensive touchdowns of longer than 20 yards. If big plays decide big games, Kansas State has some work to do.

2. There are two ways to look at Virginia Tech after the Hokies spotted Duke a 20-0 last week and then scored the game’s next 41 points. If the Hokies (4-3, 2-1 ACC) turned a corner, then the Coastal Division, which already has four teams with one conference loss, is theirs for the taking. And if the Hokies go into Clemson, which is coming off a bye week, and get smacked around Saturday, that will reflect the mediocrity that they have become. That Duke victory was either a springboard to contention or a snapshot of inconsistency.

3. The announcement Tuesday by Penn State that it will not renew the contract of athletic director Tim Curley is no surprise. Nor should it be confused with assigning him culpability in the Sandusky scandal. His perjury trial relating to the case won’t begin until January. But even if Curley is cleared in court, Curley is a pariah. Any school that has endured what Penn State has endured would want to start over. Within the department, there is a lot of support for interim athletic director Dave Joyner to remain in charge.

Former Penn State football assistant coach Mike McQueary has filed a whistle-blower lawsuit against the university, seeking millions of dollars in damages for what he believes is defamation and misrepresentation.

McQueary, who saw former Penn State assistant Jerry Sandusky in the shower with a young boy in 2001 and reported it to former head coach Joe Paterno, claims that statements made by former Penn State president Graham Spanier after the scandal broke in November harmed his reputation. The lawsuit states Spanier told athletic staff after the scandal broke that he supported athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz, who had been charged with perjury and failing to report child abuse.

From the Associated Press:

"Spanier's statements have irreparably harmed (McQueary's) reputation for honesty and integrity, and have irreparably harmed (his) ability to earn a living, especially in his chosen profession of coaching football," the lawsuit said.

Messages left for Spanier and his lawyer on Tuesday were not immediately returned.

The lawsuit said McQueary learned his contract was not being renewed, meaning he was no longer a university employee, from a news conference held in July by the university's new president, Rodney Erickson. He said his salary last year was $140,000 and his future earnings as a coach would amount to at least $4 million.

McQueary's lawsuit hardly comes as a surprise, as his career options in football seemingly have been limited or completely eliminated by the scandal. The former Penn State quarterback and wide receivers coach testified in Sandusky's child sex abuse trial in June.

One of the key questions lingering from the NCAA sanctions against Penn State was how the $60 million fine levied against the school would be used.

The NCAA announced on Tuesday that it has set up a 10-member task force to determine the guidelines for applying that $60 million toward child sexual abuse prevention and victim treatment programs. That task force will also appoint an independent third-party administrator to choose which groups get funding.

Under the sanctions, Penn State must pay $12 million annually over a five-year period. The NCAA said Tuesday that at least 25 percent of those annual payments will go toward organizations in Pennsylvania, and that those programs will receive the first round of funding. Pennsylvania House Democratic Leader Frank Dermody has said all of the money should stay in the state.

No Penn State-run programs are eligible to use the money, but the school will have some say in where the fines go. That's because Penn State was allowed to appoint two of the 10 members on the task force. They are Dr. Craig Hillemeier, vice dean for clinical affairs in the college of medicine, and Nan C. Crouter, dean of the college of health and human development.

University of California-Riverside chancellor Tim White will serve as chairman of the task force.

Paying out $60 million is a painful sanction for Penn State. But if anything good can come from the Jerry Sandusky scandal, it could be that this money funds programs that prevent or comfort child abuse victims.

When Gene Marsh got the call on the morning of July 17, he was holed up in a one-room cabin -- with no running water and no toilets -- in woodsy Chebeague Island off of Maine. "A shack fit for the Unabomber," says Marsh, a 60-year-old tart-tongued Tuscaloosa, Ala., lawyer. Only six days earlier, he had been hired by Penn State to help negotiate sanctions from the NCAA in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal. On the phone was Donald Remy, the NCAA's general counsel. The news was grim. Remy said Penn State was facing an unprecedented punishment: a multiple-season death penalty, no football for years.

"Are you overselling this?" Marsh asked.

"Absolutely not," Remy said.

As he sat in his cabin, "I just imagined an empty stadium," says Marsh, a former chairman of the NCAA's infractions committee who has since defended many schools and coaches before it, including former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel. "I thought about the wind blowing through the portals and all the economic and social and spiritual ramifications of that empty stadium. And this would last … years?"

• Read more from Don Van Natta Jr. on the inside negotiations that brought Penn State football to the brink of extinction.

Jerry Sandusky's adopted son, Matt, says he is a victim of Jerry's sexual abuse.

STATE COLLEGE, PA. -- In the lobby of the Penn Stater hotel, they stood vigil -- reporters, cameramen, students, alumni, residents and a few tipsy hotel bar patrons. It was Nov. 9, 2011, shortly before 9 p.m., and the throng awaited the decision of the Pennsylvania State University board of trustees. Behind the closed doors of Room 206, the 32 men and women charged with navigating the worst crisis in Penn State's 156-year history were on the verge of a painstaking but seemingly unavoidable verdict.

Near the back of a conference room littered with coffee cups and plates of half-eaten fudge brownies and chocolate-chip cookies, a 79-year-old trustee and philanthropist named Mimi Coppersmith stood up and beseeched her colleagues to reconsider what they were poised to do. "Coach Paterno is revered here in State College," she said.

"We're not going to drink the Kool-Aid," snapped John P. Surma, then the board's vice chairman and the chief executive officer of United States Steel Corp. "This is what we need to do."

Read more on this story from Dan Van Natta Jr.

1. The Penn State Board of Trustees released another explanation Monday of its decision to fire Joe Paterno. After board members said in January that he failed to meet a moral obligation to do more when informed of the child-abuse accusations against former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, the board said Monday that Paterno showed a “failure of leadership.” How long before the board issues another explanation in its continuing attempt to deflect responsibility for its failures?

2. Of the 58 seniors in fall sports awarded a $7,500 postgraduate scholarship by the NCAA, only three play FBS football. That means three players out of about 12,000 on FBS rosters had the chops to earn this scholarship. Let’s hope that is less a commentary on the state of FBS academics than it is a compliment to BYU running back Bryan Kariya, Ball State wideout Briggs Orsbon, and Navy guard John Dowd. Make what you will of this: Kariya and Orsbon both have 4.0 GPAs and are married. Dowd, the slacker with the 3.91 GPA, already has won an $18,000 postgraduate grant as a Campbell Award finalist.

3. When I visited Arizona last week, Virginia Tech running backs coach Shane Beamer came through to watch Rich Rodriguez’s Wildcats. Beamer is part of one of my favorite stories regarding coaches making spring visits to other staffs. In spring 2003, as a graduate assistant at Tennessee, Beamer and other Vols coaches visited Texas A&M. Head coach Dennis Franchione welcomed everyone, and then threw Beamer out of the meeting. Why? That fall, the Aggies would play the Hokies, coached by Beamer’s dad Frank.

Rutgers athletic director Tim Pernetti says he already has a short list of candidates to become the next head coach of the Scarlet Knights.

So what exactly is he looking for?

“I think there are a lot of criteria," he said Thursday. "No. 1, we want the right kind of person. Understanding and being able to have your arms around the culture of the tri-state area I think is critical to being successful at Rutgers. So much of it has been built around being able to recruit on a somewhat regional level, that I think not only having a great understanding, but having really deep and strong relationships in the tri-state area. I think those are two very critical factors in this whole thing.”

Who fits the description? Here are a few possibilities:

Temple coach Steve Addazio. In his first season as the head coach at Temple, Addazio went 9-4 and brought the Owls back to a bowl game. He has ties to the tri-state area, having grown up and coached in Connecticut. He also served as an assistant at Syracuse in the 1990s and he clearly has established ties in the past year in the Pennsylvania area. That state has been a huge recruiting area for Rutgers, particularly given what has happened to Penn State.

Florida International coach Mario Cristobal. One of the brightest up-and-coming coaches in the country, Cristobal has done for FIU what Schiano did for Rutgers. He completely resurrected a program mired in misery, taking it to its first-ever conference title and back-to-back bowl appearances for the first time, too. FIU is obviously a much younger program, but Cristobal has got the coaching and recruiting chops. Plus, he worked under Schiano at Rutgers from 2001-03, so he has a familiar with the recruiting area. Cristobal was also a candidate for the Pitt job before ultimately deciding he wanted to stay in the South Florida area. What could Rutgers say to change his mind?

Notre Dame defensive coordinator Bob Diaco. A defensive mastermind like Schiano (who also served as defensive coordinator this past season), Diaco is from Cedar Grove, N.J., and has some coaching experience in the Big East. He was an assistant at Cincinnati under then-coach Brian Kelly before leaving to join Kelly with the Irish.

On Saturday, The Washington Post published Joe Paterno's first interview since the Jerry Sandusky scandal broke in November. Those who were hoping for solid answers on how Penn State could have harbored an alleged child sex-abuser under Paterno's watch probably came away disappointed.

In the interview with Sally Jenkins, Paterno sounded many of the same themes we have heard from his issued public statements and from his sons: that he reported what he knew about Sandusky to his superiors and that he was unaware of his longtime assistant's alleged abuse until Mike McQueary brought forth an allegation about Sandusky in the shower with a boy in 2002.

The story paints Paterno as being in much worse physical condition than when we last saw him in public, the day before his firing Nov. 9. Since then, it has been revealed that the winningest coach in Division I history is dealing with lung cancer. Jenkins writes that Paterno is using a wheelchair, is wearing a wig because of chemotherapy treatments and labors to speak. He has experienced fogginess from the chemo and has had trouble eating. Paterno finished the interview Friday and was admitted to the hospital later that day for further observation.

Paterno seems aware that time might be running out for him, but he hopes he has enough time left to restore his tarnished legacy.

The story, while lacking many bombshells, adds to our understanding of how Paterno says he handled the allegations McQueary brought to him.

"He was very upset and I said why, and he was very reluctant to get into it,” Paterno said. “He told me what he saw, and I said, what? He said it, well, looked like inappropriate, or fondling, I’m not quite sure exactly how he put it. I said you did what you had to do. It’s my job now to figure out what we want to do. So I sat around. It was a Saturday. Waited till Sunday because I wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing. And then I called my superiors and I said, ‘Hey, we got a problem, I think. Would you guys look into it?’ Cause I didn’t know, you know. We never had, until that point, 58 years I think, I had never had to deal with something like that. And I didn’t feel adequate.”

Many have wondered why Paterno, the most powerful figure in the Penn State community, didn't personally do more instead of merely reporting the accusation up the chain of command.

"I didn’t know exactly how to handle it and I was afraid to do something that might jeopardize what the university procedure was,” he said. “So I backed away and turned it over to some other people, people I thought would have a little more expertise than I did. It didn’t work out that way. ...

"I didn’t know which way to go,” he said. “And rather than get in there and make a mistake ...”

Paterno also portrayed himself as being too much from the old world to really understand what McQueary was telling him. McQueary, the former Penn State assistant coach, testified to the grand jury that he witnessed what he believed to be a sexual encounter between Sandusky and what appeared to be a 10-year-old boy in a locker room shower at the school's football complex. McQueary has said he was reluctant to get into too many details with the then-78-year-old Paterno but that he later described in more detail what he saw to school administrators.

“You know, he didn’t want to get specific,” Paterno said. “And to be frank with you I don’t know that it would have done any good, because I never heard of, of, rape and a man. So I just did what I thought was best."

To me, that defense rings false. There's no question Paterno is from a different generation, one in which certain types of sexual behavior were often not spoken about. But no matter what age you are, you should be able to quickly ascertain that any sexual activity between a man and a child is both wrong and illegal. There aren't many ways to go when it comes to that, except to do everything in your power to stop it.

How many opportunities did Paterno have to stop Sandusky? Although Sandusky worked alongside Paterno for more than 30 years, Paterno said in the interview that he never suspected Sandusky of any deviant behavior. As for Sandusky's oddly timed retirement in 1999, Paterno said he thought it was because he had told Sandusky that he would never succeed him as Penn State head coach. Paterno said he was frustrated with how much time Sandusky was spending at his children's charity, The Second Mile, rather than coaching and recruiting. Prosecutors have alleged Sandusky used The Second Mile to recruit his victims.

Paterno said he was not close to Sandusky and could not recall the last time he had seen or spoken to him. Sandusky had been investigated by local police in 1998, but Paterno said he was unaware of that.

“You know it wasn’t like it was something everybody in the building knew about,” Paterno said. “Nobody knew about it.”

That, too, seems hard to believe. In a best-case scenario, Paterno's insistence that he was unaware of what was going on in his own football building confirms what many had long suspected: that the now-85-year-old was far too out of touch and ineffective to be running a major college football program. In the worst case, it shows negligence or willful ignorance.

To Paterno's credit, he doesn't point fingers at others for what happened in the Sandusky case. His wife, Sue, is upset at how Paterno was fired by the school's Board of Trustees. The Paternos say a school administrator showed up at their door at 10 p.m. Nov. 9 with trustee vice chairman John Surma's phone number written on a slip of paper; when Paterno called it, he quickly was told he'd been fired.

But in the interview, Paterno expressed little anger at the way the university has treated him.

“You know, I’m not as concerned about me,” he said. “What’s happened to me has been great. I got five great kids. Seventeen great grandchildren. I’ve had a wonderful experience here at Penn State. I don’t want to walk away from this thing bitter. I want to be helpful.”

So why has Paterno, who has not been accused of any legal wrongdoing, waited so long to speak out?

"I wanted everybody to settle down," he said.

This interview likely won't settle the debate between those who say Paterno was martyred in this scandal and those who think Paterno bears a large share of responsibility. You can believe Paterno did what was legally required and was too old to understand the ramifications of the McQueary allegations. Or you can believe Paterno simply didn't want to know more about what was happening.

In the end, we all want to know how something this ugly could have occurred at Penn State or anywhere. After Paterno's first interview -- and given his health, who knows how much more we'll hear from him -- we're still left wondering.

Joe Paterno was fired exactly two months ago today. And who will replace Paterno as head coach at Penn State?

We still don't know.

Today also begins a short open window where coaches can contact recruits. They can do so until Saturday. Interim coach Tom Bradley is going out to meet recruits this week even though he has no idea whether he'll be retained by the school. Bradley is in a very difficult position in trying to sell prospects on Penn State. High school players want to know who their head coach will be, and Bradley can't give them that answer.

Some Nittany Lions fans and boosters still held out hope that Boise State's Chris Petersen would change his mind and come to State College. Petersesn just got a raise and a new deal with the Broncos.

StateCollege.com reports that Rutgers coach Greg Schiano may be a candidate. Schiano, a former Penn State assistant, had long been mentioned as a potential Paterno successor down the road, but his stock had cooled as the Scarlet Knights struggled to repeat their success from a breakthrough 2006 season. Rutgers did win the New Era Pinstripe Bowl this year. He has run a clean program that has excelled at graduating players, and Penn State could do a whole lot worse at this point.

Otherwise, most of the chatter has been about NFL assistants, like New England's Bill O'Brien, San Francisco's Greg Roman and Green Bay's Tom Clements. All of those teams are in the playoffs, so perhaps that is the delay on further word with them.

As the New York Times reported earlier this week, interim athletic director Dave Joyner and trustee Ira M. Lubert appear to doing most of the work on the search alone, and neither has any experience hiring a coach. Penn State fans' hopes are dwindling for a big name coming out of nowhere.

Meanwhile, we wait and wait. It's been two full months since the board of trustees dumped Paterno with a phone call. When will they finally call upon a successor?

ESPN's Jeremy Schaap discusses Mike McQueary's testimony in a preliminary hearing.

Shelley Smith with the latest on Jerry Sandusky.

Penn State appears very serious about leading a thorough investigation into the sex-abuse scandal involving former football assistant Jerry Sandusky. On Monday morning, the school announced it has hired former FBI director Louis Freeh to lead the probe into what happened and who knew about it.

Penn State had already formed a special committee to conduct an investigation, chaired by trustee and Merck CEO Ken Frazier.

"We are committed to leaving no stone unturned to get to the bottom of what happened -- who knew what, when, and what changes we must make to ensure this doesn’t happen again," Frazier said. "And that means in any area of the university… not just the football program. No one, no one, is above scrutiny, including every member of the administration, every member of the Board of Trustees, and every employee of Penn State University."

Frazier stressed Freeh's independence and said he will have free rein to conduct his investigation. Freeh said he will go as far back as 1975 to search for Sandusky victims and information and will turn over any potential criminal activity he finds to the proper legal authorities.

"I am committed to ensuring that our independent investigation be conducted in a thorough, fair, comprehensive manner ... without any fear or favor," Freeh said. "We will examine all the relevant records, evidence, information and circumstances. We will attempt to interview all necessary and appropriate witnesses. ... We will also thoroughly study, review and test all of the university's policies, procedures, compliance and internal controls relating to the identifying and reporting of such sex crimes and misconduct."

Penn State has set up a hotline for people to provide information to the investigation. Those with any knowledge of the case can call 855-290-3382 or e-mail PSUhelp@freehgroup.com.

School officials have said they will release the findings of the investigation to the public when it is completed.

Jay Paterno, an assistant coach at Penn State, talks about his father, recently fired Nittany Lions head coach Joe Paterno, who has been diagnosed with a form of lung cancer, and the Jerry Sandusky scandal.