This just in: Ohio State-Michigan is Saturday, and it's not only not the biggest game in the country, it's not the biggest game in the Big Ten Conference.

Not even close.

"It's progressing," Michigan State quarterback Brian Hoyer said Tuesday. "Hopefully it will progress to the point where the Penn State-Michigan State game will be (annually) bigger than Michigan-Ohio State."

Steady, big fella.

The Nittany Lions (10-1) and Spartans (9-2) will indeed play for at least a share of the conference championship at Beaver Stadium Saturday (3:30 p.m., ESPN).

A Penn State win puts the Lions in the Rose Bowl. To earn Roses, Michigan State would have to win and hope the team it hates most, Michigan, can somehow upset the archrival Buckeyes.

Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio just can't bring himself to do it.

"I'm not rooting for Michigan," he said. "I have too many people who'd never let me back inside their homes."

That isn't just because Dantonio is an Ohio guy, a former defensive coordinator under Ohio State coach Jim Tressel and head coach at Cincinnati. Michigan State has always been the grubby little brother to Michigan in terms in reputation, both academic and athletic.

But Dantonio has gotten the Spartans where they are in just his second season after a long history of "colorful," coaches and erratic, undisciplined teams.

"I've always thought that Michigan State is significant," he said. "I'm not overwhelmed that all of a sudden this week is here."

Neither is anyone in the Penn State camp. The Lions have been the most impressive team in the Big Ten throughout this season, statistically and by any other measure. They won at benchmark Ohio State, which blasted Michigan State, 45-7.

The Lions are ranked seventh nationally in the AP poll, the Spartans 17th, Las Vegas has installed Penn State, remarkably, as a 14½-point favorite.

So it's easy to forget that Penn State is also in the middle of a renaissance, one that began four years ago when the current senior class, 17 of whom will play their final home game Saturday, signed on.

They signed after a 2004 season in which Penn State went 4-7, after a 3-9 nightmare in 2003. It was around this time that Penn State officials came to Paterno's home to try and talk him into calling it a career.

It was also around this time that Derrick Williams, a wide receiver from Maryland and the country's top-ranked high school player, signed to play for JoePa.

"I wanted to make a difference at a program," Williams said Tuesday. "I wanted to make my stamp on a program. I definitely think I made a difference with putting Penn State back to where we were."

Both Williams and Justin King, a highly-regarded multi-position athlete from suburban Pittsburgh, entered school early, in January of 2005. By the fall they were ready.

Williams seemed to be emerging as a monster force when his broke his arm during the Michigan game halfway through his freshman year. That was Penn State's only loss during 2005, a year in which the Lions shared the conference title with Ohio State (which it beat head-to-head) and won the Orange Bowl.

As a sophomore and junior, Williams did not develop into the Heisman Trophy candidate everyone expected. He had some strange, almost indifferent-seeming stretches. Deon Butler and Jordan Norwood, who'll also play their final games at the Beav Saturday, emerged as Penn State's two most reliable receivers.

But as a senior Williams as emerged as a multi-position force, as a runner, receiver and kick returner. The weather in Happy Valley Saturday (the forecast is for snow and highs around 30 degrees) may take some of the finesse out of the game, but it almost can't be harsh enough to keep the ball out of Williams' hands.

"He carries people with him on the practice field," Paterno said of Williams. "He works hard, does everything well, and he can do just about anything on the football field. If I wanted to make him a corner(back) he might be as good a corner as there is around."

One difference between Michigan State-Penn State and Ohio State-Michigan (other than the fabled Land Grant Trophy) is in the former rivalry, the principals don't seem to loathe each other. Yet.

"It's a great college football atmosphere," Dantonio said of Beaver Stadium. "It's something our players can remember for the rest of their lives."

"They have great athletes," Michigan State senior running back Javon Ringer said. "And Joe Paterno, I personally don't see him going anywhere. (The rivalry) won't be a one-year wonder, because of the talent coming up behind us."

"It's always been a rivalry," Michigan State safety Otis Wiley said. "It's about to be a great one."

E-mail: mgross@lnpnews.com