The Penn State Nittany Lions (Lady Lions for women's basketball only) are the athletic teams of Pennsylvania State University. The school colors are blue and white. The school mascot is the Nittany Lion. The Intercollegiate Athletics Logo was commissioned in 1983.
Penn State participates in the NCAA Division I FBS and in the Big Ten Conference for most sports. Penn State is one of only 15 universities in the nation that plays Division I FBS football and Division I men's ice hockey. A few sports participate in different conferences because they are not sponsored by the Big Ten: men's lacrosse in the Colonial Athletic Association, women's lacrosse in American Lacrosse Conference, and men's volleyball in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA). The women's ice hockey team, competing for the first time at the varsity level in the 2012-13 season, plays in College Hockey America. The fencing teams operate as independents.
Penn State has finished in the top 25 in every NACDA Director's Cup final poll, a feat only matched by nine other institutions: Stanford, UCLA, USC, Florida, Ohio State, Texas, North Carolina, and Michigan. The NACDA Director's Cup is a list compiled by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics that charts institutions' overall success in college sports. Penn State's highest finish came in the 1998-1999 standings when the Nittany Lions finished 3rd. PSU finished in 9th place in the 2007-08 standings, the most recent top-ten finish. It was the eighth time the program finished in the top 10.
Read more about Penn State Nittany Lions: Current Varsity Sports Programs, Current Intercollegiate Club Sports, National Championships, Big Ten Championships, Olympians, Facilities, Penn State All-Sports Museum, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words penn, state and/or lions:
“Let the people think they govern and they will be governed.”
—William Penn (1644–1718)
“The structure was designed by an old sea captain who believed that the world would end in a flood. He built a home in the traditional shape of the Ark, inverted, with the roof forming the hull of the proposed vessel. The builder expected that the deluge would cause the house to topple and then reverse itself, floating away on its roof until it should land on some new Ararat.”
—For the State of New Jersey, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“Sure, you can love your child when he or she has just brought home a report card with straight “A’s.” It’s a lot harder, though, to show the same love when teachers call you from school to tell you that your child hasn’t handed in any homework since the beginning of the term.”
—The Lions Clubs International and the Quest Nation. The Surprising Years, II, ch.3 (1985)