Some have piled on Joe Paterno for not always having control of his football players off the field. Some have piled on the 81-year-old Penn State coach for sticking around too long. But you won't get JoePa to pile on an opponent -- pile on points, that is -- just to impress the pollsters. "I'm not comfortable with that," he said.

Speaking during Tuesday's Big Ten teleconference, Paterno triggered a flashback to 1994 when "I had as good of a football team as I've ever been around, and I've had a couple of pretty good football teams.''

In '94, Nebraska was pretty darn good, too. And that was the pre-BCS conundrum for the media voters in the Associated Press poll and the coaches in the USA Today/CNN poll. After the Cornhuskers jumped from No. 3 to No. 1 in the AP poll on the heels of beating No. 2-ranked Colorado, 24-7, Nebraska linebacker Troy Dumas said, "We're No. 1, plain and simple."

Only it wasn't that simple. Penn State, which was bumped from No. 1 to No. 2 in the AP poll, still hung on to its No. 1 ranking in the coaches poll after destroying Ohio State, 63-14 -- the Buckeyes' worst beating in 48 years. Paterno pulled his all-American tailback KiJana Carter, who had four touchdowns and 137 rushing yards, in the third quarter when the score was 49-7. "I'd be miffed if we weren't No. 1," sniffed quarterback Kerry Collins.

A week later, he was miffed. After the Cornhuskers crushed Kansas, 45-17, they replaced Penn State at the top of the USA Today/CNN poll because some of the voters weren't impressed with the Nittany Lions' 35-29 win at Indiana. The Hoosiers scored two touchdowns in the final two minutes, including as time expired. "The game is over (early), and Bill Mallory is a good friend of mine," Paterno said of the former IU coach. "I put the second (string) kids in there, and we didn't throw."

It turned out to be a costly strategy because Nebraska was now in the driver's seat -- atop both polls -- and that's where the undefeated Cornhuskers finished. They were voted the national champions, while unbeaten Penn State was runner-up. In light of this recent history, Paterno insisted Tuesday that the thought of running up the score on an opponent to earn points with the voters still bothers him.

"It's a media event," Paterno said of the beauty pageant element to today's BCS formula, i.e. strutting your stuff on the runway for the USA Today Coaches poll and the Harris poll. The AP poll is meaningless. "The object of the game is not to embarrass anybody," Paterno went on. "The object of the game is to just go out and play well enough to win the game."

Paterno had one question for those who feel that winning impressively -- by large margins -- is necessary. "What's it prove?" he posed. "The only thing that is important is, 'Are you good enough to win?'"

Paterno responded the same way in 1997 when the same topic was broached after he pulled his starters against Pitt. The Nittany Lions were leading 34-3 in the fourth quarter when Paterno unloaded his bench, and that allowed the Panthers to score a couple of consolation touchdowns against the second- and third-teamers.