Its regular season over, Penn State must sit and wait and watch other BCS bowl contenders compete in key rivalry games and conference championship contests between now and the awarding of bowl bids Dec. 6.

The Nittany Lions will watch on TV and read on the Internet about the praiseworthy achievements of these teams and their players. That buzz must influence BCS bowl committees to a considerable degree.

So, with the Lions out of sight and out of mind, what's a coach to say?

"If I could get on the phone and call some people and say, 'Hey, you owe me or if not, you better watch out - there might be a horse's head in your bed,' " Paterno said with a laugh Saturday after Penn State defeated Michigan State, 42-14, to improve to 10-2.

The Nittany Lions moved up one spot to 13th in yesterday's BCS standings. They need to be in the top 14 to be eligible for selection as an at-large team by a BCS bowl - Sugar, Fiesta or Orange - when the bids go out.

But their fate is subject to the play of the teams above and below them in the standings that are playing and prompting discussion.

Paterno said it's "almost impossible" to keep your team in the national consciousness if it's not playing.

"There's so many big games coming up around the country," he said. "What do you do? I could jump off the roof of my house.

"But I don't think there's anything we can do until we change the format of the scheduling in the Big Ten. Or as I've tried to say several times, get a 12th team and have a division championship."

Paterno long has advocated that the Big Ten expand to 12 teams and split into two divisions so there could be a title game, but conference presidents have balked. The Big Ten will add a bye week to the schedule next season, meaning the regular season will conclude one week later, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

When bid day arrives, the Nittany Lions are going to have to look out for Iowa, which ended its regular season with a 12-0 win over Minnesota and rose to No. 11 yesterday in the BCS standings.

The Hawkeyes (10-2) have the same record as Penn State but defeated the Lions at Beaver Stadium. Since then, they have lost quarterback Ricky Stanzi to an ankle injury and it's questionable whether Stanzi will be able to play in a bowl game.

Paterno refused to get into a discussion of fairness when asked if Iowa should be picked ahead of Penn State.

"Please, don't get me in all of the ethics of college football every time I get up" to a podium, he said.

Lions cocaptain Sean Lee understands Iowa's win over Penn State will come into play.

"You've got to give credit to Iowa," the senior linebacker said. "They came in and they beat us at home. So that's definitely got to be added into the equation. But I know our team can play with anybody in the country."

Lions quarterback Daryll Clark, who tied a career high with four touchdown passes against the Spartans, finished Saturday's game with three school records: most touchdown passes in a season (23), most TD passes in a career (42), and most passing yards in a season (2,787).

Junior tailback Evan Royster rushed for 114 yards to surpass the 1,000-yard mark for the second season in a row. The Lions are 12-0 (6-0 in each of the last two seasons) when Royster rushes for more than 100 yards.