Strategy Shows

The most subtle things so often slip by unnoticed, scuttling underneath our eyes, passing too quickly for us to spot them. People move in blurs, rushing from one activity to the next in a constant stream of color...consequently, staying inconspicuous is not hard a job for these little, lurking things.


Today, I sat in a patched leather chair, staring across an oak desk at the 30 year Army Reserve secretary who was processing my military ID. I swung my legs back and forth in the silence as he typed and photocopied various items, and my eyes traveled this way and that sporadically around the room. Bored, I started reading the posters that decorate the tan walls. After visually sorting through the massive amounts of Army paraphernalia, I eventually studied a picture of a familiar looking stadium framed in blue and white with lights shining in all directions. I quirked a small smile to myself as I recognized Beaver Stadium. Looking closer, I read the silver text sharpied on the blue poster: PSU vs. USC...the Rose Bowl. Slightly awed, my eyes bounced down to the small numbers just barely peeping out from behind the team names: PSU- 24. USC- 32...


At first I thought it must have been a sharpie typo. Why would anyone so proudly display such an epic poster that depicts Beaver Stadium in all its glory, if only to contrast it with the dismal failure of the team it represents? Puzzled, I lifted my eyes to the large, ostentatious words tacked to the top of the poster. "The greatest SHOW in College Football."


 ...show. This is why we have this poster taped to our tan walls in our mediocre offices while we spend hours on hours of tedious time performing mediocre jobs. Penn State, the formally number one party school in America, puts on the greatest SHOW in college football. Who cares if we win or lose? You should come to OUR school. We put on the best faces, the best music, the best entertainment, and the best reputation of a good time. We do all this better than any of our rivals. Propaganda? Rhetoric? Want to convince people that PSU is the best? Just subtly change the definition of quality. So what if we don't crash into the enzone with victory at our heels? So what if we don't rule the Big 10?


 Penn State: the greatest SHOW in college football.

I never would have noticed those small, silver letters if I hadn't been sitting in that chair, watching the clock tick time away.