• The Penn State-LSU matchup in the Capital One Bowl is a clash between two teams that came up short in the Big Ten and SEC West title races.

It's also a contest between teams that are winning more than their share of recruiting battles this year.

The Nittany Lions are third in the latest Rivals.com rankings of recruiting classes for 2010. LSU is fourth.

The only teams ahead of them in the Rivals.com rankings will play in the national championship game Jan. 7.

Texas is first in the Web site's recruiting rankings, just ahead of Alabama.

Penn State has 20 verbal commitments. Fourteen of them, including Manheim Central's Dakota Royer, are listed as four-star prospects (five-star is the top rating).

Among other notables, Notre Dame is 12th in the Rivals.com rankings, Ohio State is 17th and Pittsburgh is 24th.

• What's wrong with the Pittsburgh Steelers? You can point to any number of areas — the offensive line, shoddy tackling, costly penalties, the play of Ben Roethlisberger ...

But the absence of Troy Polamalu because of a knee injury has to be the biggest reason for the Steelers' sudden decline from 6-2 to 6-7.

The Steelers have lost their past five games by a combined 22 points. Two of the losses were in overtime.

Here's guessing that Polamalu, who has played in only five games, would have made enough plays to make a difference in three of those games, turning the Steelers into a 9-4 team.

That would put them a half-game behind the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC North. A half-game behind the Bengals? Come to think of it, people would still be asking what's wrong with the Steelers.

• Two years ago, Memphis coach John Calipari rode freshman guard Derrick Rose to the NCAA championship game before losing to Kansas in overtime.

Calipari is now at Kentucky and has another freshman guard, John Wall, who looks as though he could take the Wildcats to a national title.

Wall, from Raleigh, N.C., had 25 points, including 12 of his team's final 15, to lift No. 4 Kentucky over No. 14 Connecticut 64-61 Wednesday at Madison Square Garden.

"Just as I thought: John Wall is just as good as Derrick Rose," UConn coach Jim Calhoun told reporters afterward. "He's all of that. Whatever that is, he's all of that."

Ironically, if Calipari does make it to the championship game again, Kansas might be waiting. The Jayhawks are undefeated and ranked No. 1.

• Florida is a football hotbed, but apparently the sport can reach a saturation point even in the Sunshine State.

The Jacksonville Jaguars are 7-5 and have won five straight home games, but they've been drawing poorly all season. Only 42,079, the worst crowd in franchise history, showed up for last week's game against the Houston Texans.

Today's game against the Miami Dolphins will be the ninth game this season, including preseason, to be blacked out for television in the Jacksonville area.

No wonder there's already speculation that the Jaguars will draft Florida star Tim Tebow in an effort to energize their fan base.

Jim Hersh is sports editor of the Sunday News. E-mail him at jhersh@lnpnews.com.