What a day for a field trip for my Comm 497G “Joe Paterno, Communications & The Media” class at Penn State.

I anticipated the week of the Nittany Lions’ home game against Eastern Illinois to be fairly quiet, and therefore a good time to request that my class of 62 juniors and seniors, most of whom are studying communications, attend Paterno’s weekly Tuesday press conference in Beaver Stadium.

I was wrong about quiet. But I was right about the timing.

You may have heard about it -- or heard it on StateCollege.com -- the 10-question, 3 minute and 37 second give-and-take between Cory Giger of The Mirror in Altoona and Penn State coach Joe Paterno. Gigor also does a daily afternoon sports talk radio show on State College’s 1450 ESPN.

Although neither Cory nor Joe raised his voice (well, not very much), it was exactly the kind of rhetoric the students had been trained to find and analyze. Helluva lesson plan, if I do say so myself.

Let me explain: The students prepped for the visit with a lecture by Jack Selzer, an associate dean in Penn State’s College of Liberal Arts, the head of the College’s Paterno Scholars program, an avid and astute follower of Penn State and collegiate athletics, and the president of the Rhetoric Society of America.

(In the interest of full disclosure, Selzer was my English 20 professor at Penn State, in a class that included Jeff Hostetler and Dan Rocco, former PSU football players who transferred to West Virginia and Wake Forest, respectively, some time after taking Selzer’s class. That they left was not Jack’s fault, he says.)

A dynamic lecturer, Selzer came to the Paterno & The Media class as a guest speaker, to do a pre-game on learning the hidden messages of what went on at a Paterno press conference, and other ones just like it.

Well, nothing was hidden, and I’ve been going to Joe’s press conferences for 30 years, and to my recollection, there’s never been anything like it. (One of the great things about it was that Dave Jones, the beat contrarian from the Harrisburg Patriot-News, was not there to see Cory’s repeated questioning -- usually Jones’ stock-in-trade).

“Think of all the discourse as an argument broadly constructed,” Selzer said before the press conference. “Sometimes it is explicit -- it is easy to read as an argument -- in that the speaker is trying to persuade people. Think of the press conference we are going to as a set of arguments.”

Is Jack good or what? No wonder he’s an associate dean and I’m a journeyman senior lecturer.

Joe’s main argument was that Eastern Illinois, although a Football Championship Subdivision team (Division I-AA, to you and me), is 4-1 and ranked 25th in the FCS, is a worthy opponent. Paterno showed up at the 12:30 p.m. press conference knowing that he was there to deliver the message to the media. But he is astute enough to know that his words also held sway with his players, the fans, Eastern Illinois, maybe even his coaching staff.

Along the way, he said:

-- He would prefer his team not be playing a football game this week. Nothing against Eastern Illinois. Better to rest the players.

-- If he had his druthers, if the Nittany Lions had to play a 12th game, it would be after the Michigan State game (the final regular season game, on Nov. 21).

-- He didn’t like the insinuations in some questions that Eastern Illinois was not a good opponent.

-- He wasn’t consulted about whether Penn State should play a 12th game.

-- And a 12th game can be construed as necessary in order to help fund Penn State’s other 28 varsity sports.

(An aside from me, not Joe: Fewer than 20 Division I-A college sports programs are self-sustaining; PSU is one of them, which means that the university does not make up any shortfall in athletic director Tim Curley’s budget.)

Paterno came ready to state his case. Although he usually appears at these press conferences without any notes or advance planning, Tuesday was different. He knew that there were discourses circulating about Penn State football (the quality of Saturday’s opponent), and an astute observer and press conference participant (Joe) would do well to realize this in advance.

That’s why, at the beginning of the exchange with Giger over the commonality of big-time Division I-A schools scheduling games against smaller Division I-AA schools, Paterno pulled a single white sheet of paper out of the inside pocket of his suit coat. On it was a list of several name brand and Big Ten schools that had scheduled games against Division I-AA teams.

He’s rarely done this trick, but Joe knows how to make a good argument. With facts. You would not expect anything less from a man who lists among his favorite quotes, “The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital.”

So now, homework remains after the press conference.

Giger will no doubt defend his line of questioning on his talk show and in the paper.

Paterno has a Quarterback Club on Wednesday, a call-in radio show on Thursday night and a pre-game show taped Friday but played on Saturday to further buttress his argument that Eastern Illinois is a good football team. He also must convince his players.

And my students: Well, Selzer has given them an assignment for Thursday’s class -- they must identify one argument from the press conference and talk about how the argument unfolded.

An easy one, too, thanks to Cory and Joe.

* * * * *

Here’s a transcript of the exchange between Cory Giger and Joe Paterno at Tuesday’s press conference in the Beaver Stadium media room.

Giger: “There are a lot of programs playing I-AA schools. Why is Penn State playing a I-AA school? What went into the process of you guys deciding to play a school like this?

Paterno: I’m glad you asked me about all those other I-AA schools. (He pulls out a sheet of paper.)

Giger: If you were the coach of them, I’d ask about those schools.

Paterno: (Reads from paper.) Here you have Michigan, Florida, Miami of Florida, Oklahoma, Alabama, Florida State, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and on and on.

Giger: Why is Penn State playing a I-AA school?

Paterno: We had an open date, we had a chance to play 12 games, which means money so we can support the other 28 varsity sports on campus.

You go around and try to get somebody who would be appropriate and at one time -- you guys correct me if this is wrong -- you couldn’t have a I-AA victory as part of your qualifications for a bowl game. Then they changed that and we had an opportunity to go out there and find someone… You got a couple of years to go out and pick up someone, so you have to look around. We were fortunate enough to get a team like Eastern Illinois with a good football tradition and a fine program, and it worked out.

Giger: You were able to trade off Arkansas State for Oregon State (in 2008), and that ended up helping you out pretty well. Did you consider trading this game off for another team?

Paterno: I haven’t got the slightest idea.

Giger: Who makes those decisions?

Paterno: Well, I’m sure there were some inquiries made by Tim (Curley) and Fran Ganter, who handles most of the (scheduling) things. If there was an opportunity for us to make some kind of switch, they would have come to me. If they didn’t come to me, they didn’t feel it was appropriate or there wasn’t anyone available.

Giger: You mentioned all those schools playing a I-AA team. Is there really a need for a 12th game in college football?

Paterno: Now you’re in a whole different ballgame. No one ever asked me about scheduling 12 games. That’s strictly, strictly a financial situation that was determined by people in higher places than the head football coach.

Giger: Would college football be better served by taking that game back?

Paterno: I haven’t got the slightest idea. Don’t put me in a corner. I’m not a prophet. I’m not that smart. You guys are, but I’m not.

Giger: Do you think your fans should be able to pay the same price (for Eastern Illinois) as they would for Ohio State…

Paterno: That’s up to them. That’s up to them…

Giger: and Iowa… Do you think…

Paterno: That’s up to them. Stop belaboring the point…

Giger: Don’t you think they should pay…

Paterno: I don’t know. That’s up to them. Is it worth you coming to the game? That’s your decision. Don’t get me into that, will you?

For crying out loud. We’re playing a good football game and a bunch of kids are getting ready for it from Eastern Illinois and Penn State, to go out there and play as hard as they know and play well. I hope the fans come to see it and enjoy it.