Penn State did not belong in the BCS Championship Game discussion. And now, thanks to their loss at Iowa, the Nittany Lions are out of that equation.

That was the weekend’s big development in college football. The national title should be decided between the Big 12 South and SEC survivors come January.

Penn State could have slipped into the title game by sweeping its weak Big Ten slate, but it stumbled in Iowa City. That was good news for climbing USC . . . except that there are still too many SEC and Big 12 South schools in its way.

Chris Dufresne of the Los Angeles Times summed it up: “Alabama pulled out another squeaker, this time against Louisiana State, and Texas Tech is so far refusing to remember it’s Texas Tech and collapse under the weight of the ‘what are we doing here?’ syndrome.

“Alabama and Texas Tech, both 10-0, remained at 1-2 in the BCS standings and remain obstacles to everyone else. Texas is the new No. 3, followed by Florida and Oklahoma.

“Two schools from the Southeastern Conference and three from the Big 12 have, to use the basketball analogy, USC boxed out under the boards.”

Unbeaten Utah is still lurking, but it will take a LOT of carnage among the top teams to clear its path.

MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

Questions to ponder while wondering Jim Haslett searches for signs of life on his roster:

• Will Steven Jackson play another football game in our lifetime?
• Could Lester Hayes share some of his leftover stick ‘em with the Rams cornerbacks?
• How did the Illini go from playing in the Rose Bowl to losing neutral site games to Western Michigan in just one year?

CONSOLATION FOR MARC BULGER

He wasn’t the worst quarterback in the NFL Sunday. That honor fell to poor Jake Delhomme of the Panthers during Carolina’s 17-6 victory at Oakland.

Delhomme completed just seven of 27 passes for 72 yards, four interceptions and one touchdown. He got sacked twice and recorded a 12.3 passer rating.

The Associated Press had this note:

He became just the second quarterback since the merger in 1970 to complete fewer than 30 percent of his passes and throw four interceptions in a victory, according to STATS LLC. Cincinnati’s Ken Anderson went 4-for-19 with four interceptions in a 14-10 victory over the Raiders on Oct. 19, 1975.

“I’m so glad we won, because you want to talk about a long plane ride home?” Delhomme said.

His counterpart, Andrew Walter, wasn’t much better. He was 14-for-32 for the Raiders, good for 143 yards and no touchdowns. He threw two interceptions, got sacked three times and posted a 31.1 passer rating.

HARD-HITTING CONSUMER REPORTING

This is taking TV journalism to the next level:

QUIPS ‘R US

Here is what some of America’s leading sports pundits have been writing:

Dwight Perry, Seattle Times: “Eagles receiver Hank Baskett is set to marry former Playboy Playmate Kendra Wilkinson, reportedly proposing to her atop the Space Needle during his team’s visit to Seattle last weekend. Hugh Hefner immediately declared it the mother of all Baskett catches.”

Bill Simmons, ESPN.com: “Thoughts after the ignominious end of the Brad Johnson era in Dallas: When you can’t run, you have no arm strength and you aren’t accurate, your team is better off using actors such as Keanu Reeves or James Van Der Beek over playing you as quarterback . . . the tag ‘Super Bowl-winning QB’ can go only so far . . . you can’t complain about Matt Cassel when one of the other 2008 contenders is starting Brad Johnson . . . it’s probably not a good idea for a contender to skimp on the backup QB position to sign a man who has been arrested more than a dozen times as its nickel back . . . the Football Outsiders guys need to create a stat for ‘routes run by a receiver on which he stops in disbelief as the ball sails seven feet behind him, looks confused, gets bummed out, then takes an extra two seconds to regroup before joining the huddle’ . . . somebody needs to make a YouTube clip of all of Johnson’s throws from the past few weeks with someone screaming ‘PULL!’ as he uncorks every throw . . . when your fans are openly pining for Brooks Bollinger, something has gone horribly, horribly, historically wrong.”

Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle: “After all that work, I’d hate to see Sarah Palin leave no legacy. So I’m proposing that the Winter Olympics add wolf hunting from helicopters.”

Greg Cote, Miami Herald: “Former Dolphin Daunte Culpepper has signed with the winless Lions. Geez, isn’t that worse than being unemployed?”

Dan Daly, Washington Times: “Ryan Leaf’s continuing personal drama - he has resigned as the QB coach at West Texas A&M because of a drug charge - is yet another reminder of how shaky the top of the 1998 draft was. Three of the first five players were total busts: Leaf (Chargers, second), defensive end Andre Wadsworth (Cardinals, third) and running back Curtis Enis (Bears, fifth). Not one of them lasted beyond his third season. Then there’s Kyle Turley, the seventh player picked (by the Saints). The only thing he ever led the league in was tattoos, though he did set a record for longest helmet throw.”

MEGAPHONE

“I have been a backup for eight years. So if there’s 32 teams in the league times eight years, that’s 256 times that teams have said, ‘This guy is not our starter.’ So, yeah, I think there are some [naysayers] out there.”

New starting Texans quarterback Sage Rosenfels.