I'm old enough to remember when Penn State threw a no-hitter at Rider College in the NCAA playoffs (might even have been in the CWS, but I can't remember with certainty) in the 60's. Chuck Medlar might have been the coach then. Anyway, that's the last time I recall Penn State having a championship-caliber baseball squad. Sometimes in the not-too-distant past the Lions have come to San Antonio or Austin for a few games, but usually the local schools beat them.
What some of you need to remember is that athletics is a different creature outside PA. Down here, for example, where football is a god, high schools traditionally emphasize only 4 sports for boys: football in the fall, basketball in the winter, baseball in the spring, and soccer in the winter (nothing -- NOTHING -- interferes with fall football). Football players can opt out of spring football only by playing baseball; track season ends by the time spring drills begin. Texas does not hold inter-scholastic wrestling, or boys volleyball and gymnastics. Only a few very wealthy school districts have swimming teams. There is interscholastic tennis and golf, but neither sport infringes on football and only wealthy, suburban districts sport any competitive squads.
I understand that several Northern colleges have excellent baseball traditions, but I don’t think Penn State is among them. Thus, it is likely more difficult to recruit rifle-armed hurlers and dynamic sluggers to Penn State when such athletes have better options in the South or at more traditionally successful Northern schools. I love baseball almost as much as I love college football (ok, there’s a large gap in that “almost”), but I can accept that Penn State is a powerhouse in wrestling, gymnastics, fencing, and men’s volleyball over its status in baseball.
I still don’t get the problem with basketball, however.