UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Not that the question should slide in there among life's great imponderables, at least not in the top 100, but when an autumn passes without the emergence of even one decent Big Ten Conference football team, does it count against the great cosmic calendar?

Just wondering, since the traditional calendar prominently was convulsed here yesterday as Centre County found itself pumping out all the charm at its disposal for mid-January. At a point in the foliage season when Mount Nittany generally poses for postcards, it stood there thwacked with a half-foot of snow beneath 30 shades of gray. Amid a full DEFCON 1 tailgate and parking emergency, it was better to stay home, and thousands upon thousands of Penn State's massive live audience seized the opportunity.

But back to the action.

On a perfectly miserable Saturday when the Minnesota Golden Gophers turned up on Penn State's lawn fresh off a 15-point victory against Purdue, which happened to be the same miserable Saturday that same Purdue team was shocking Ohio State, which happened to be the same miserable Saturday that Iowa managed to remain the only unbeaten in the league, the direction of conference politics was as clear as the fog rolling west from the Poconos.

In other words, there is not one impressive team in the Big Ten, even when considering all 11. That's clear, right?

Had Penn State beaten Iowa three weeks ago instead of blowing a 10-point lead with three interceptions and a blocked punt, the Lions would be the league's prime suspect on the allegation of being verifiable decent, but the Lions don't beat Iowa as a matter of policy. Thus the only thing that really emerged from this dreary 20-0 Penn State victory against an awful Minnesota team was that whether Sean Lee is on the field or not (and yesterday he was only around for some 15 plays in nickel packages), this Lions defense might be good enough to drag PSU to the top of the Big Ten molehill.

"You guys saw it today, everything came together," said linebacker Josh Hull, whose interception on Minnesota's first possession signaled a day-long defensive cadenza that ended with the 40th shutout of Joe Paterno's career. "This defense is building momentum and it's going to get pretty exciting around here."

Penn State's defense has allowed five touchdowns total in seven games, none in the first half. It has not allowed a single 100-yard performance by a runner or a receiver, much less anything resembling a 300-yard passing performance. Minnesota, which scored 35 points against Purdue, managed exactly two first downs in the first half yesterday, one when Lee got whistled for a late hit. It was permitted to possess the ball for scarcely 18 of the game's 60 minutes.

"I thought we played a very good defensive football game," Paterno said a few minutes after wiping three hours of snowy mist off of his nose. "We basically challenged [cornerback] A.J. Wallace to handle [Eric Decker] but most of the time he had help. The fans didn't see so much of [Decker] today, but he's some player."

Decker is the one richly accomplished Gophers offender, but his contribution yesterday was limited to one snag between the Penn State safeties that was good for 42 yards to the Penn State 34, but it came late in the third quarter with the Lions already up by 20 and the only question for those still hanging around Beaver Stadium being shutout or no.

When Gophers quarterback Adam Weber scrambled 3 yards to the Penn State 1, it appeared as though the shutout was postponed, but on fourth-and-goal from the 1, Minnesota sent Kevin Whaley left with a quick pitch.

Wallace, bolting off Decker on the right corner, collided with Whaley at the 2 and linebacker Navorro Bowman body-slammed him to the wet grass in the immediate vicinity.

"We take a lot of pride in shutouts and we had our backs to the wall there," said Hull, who combined with Bowman for 14 tackles. "A.J. had a great initial contact and Navorro just came out of nowhere."

Minnesota had come from behind in all four of its victories this fall, but Hull and company made sure they got behind and stayed there.

"We're exactly where we want to be," Hull said, meaning one Iowa loss notwithstanding. "We're taking some momentum on the road."

Penn State travels to Michigan next week and on to Northwestern before returning home for Ohio State. Do you see a decent team anywhere in that sentence? Michigan State moved to 3-1 in the conference yesterday, which would be a lot more impressive had the Spartans not lost to Central Michigan out of the conference. Next week we'll see how impressed Michigan State is with Iowa.

In any event, nothing of any consequence got decided here yesterday, unless you insist that the Penn State-Minnesota game traditionally is fought for something called the Governor's Victory Bell, a bobble of such consequence that ABC phoned the press box in the final minutes wondering where the heck it was. No matter, this should have been fought for the Governor's Pneumonia Remedy anyway.

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