He and Penn State’s Joe Paterno, who is now in his 43rd season as head coach of the Nittany Lions, renewed the rivalry between two teams who had not played each other in 26 years.

Although the annual meeting would be between the first two land-grant universities in the country, the idea behind Perles’ vision wasn’t simply about history.

It was about the future.

“We made the Land Grant Trophy with the hope that someday, this game would be bigger than the Michigan, Ohio State game,” Perles said of “The Big Game” that has captivated the entire country on the final Saturday of Big Ten play since 1935.

“We finally reached our goal this year.”

Opportunity has come

Saturday at noon, U-M (3-8 overall, 2-5 Big Ten) and No. 10 Ohio State (9-2, 6-1) will play a game that’s only ramification on the Big Ten title will be if the Wolverines can pull off an unthinkable upset in Columbus, Ohio.

Instead, the marquee conference matchup will take place in State College, Pa., when the No. 7 Nittany Lions (10-1, overall, 6-1 Big Ten) host No. 17 MSU (9-2, 6-1) for the Big Ten Championship.

Although MSU and Penn State’s records are similar and both teams are knotted in a three-way tie with Ohio State for first place in the conference, there’s no question which team is the favorite to win in Happy Valley.

“When you look at them in terms of statistically, in (nearly) every single category they’re at the top (of the Big Ten),” MSU head coach Mark Dantonio said of the Nittany Lions. “So all the different aspects of a football game are there to say, well on a piece of paper this is what it looks like. But you don’t play the game on a piece of paper, so we’re going to go over there and be confident.”

Coming off their bye last week, the Spartans are gearing up for one of the program’s biggest games in recent memory, trying to win their first Big Ten title since 1990.

Since he arrived in East Lansing, Dantonio has preached that building a successful football program is a process. But fast-forward less than two years later and he has taken the Spartans on the brink of not only a Big Ten Championship, but a potential Rose Bowl appearance.

After Tuesday’s practice, senior defensive tackle and captain Justin Kershaw admitted that he and his teammates were “anxious” to play Saturday. That excitement is something Dantonio said he won’t try to contain.

“These are the things, to me, that when you’re 7 or 10 years old, you’re out on the street and you’re playing the game for all the marbles,” Dantonio said. “That’s fun for kids, that should be fun for our players and we worked extremely hard to get to this point so I want our players to enjoy this aspect of it, but we have to go over and play well in the game.

“I want them to be excited about that opportunity; I’m not going to squash their enthusiasm.”

Dawn of a new era?

Aside from the excitement throughout the MSU family and fan base for a possible Big Ten Championship, there could be more implications to this game than the 2008 title.

Considering Perles’ vision of the rivalry between MSU and Penn State is finally coming true this season, the question must be asked: Is this year just an aberration, or is this matchup capable of becoming the traditional premiere rivalry in the Big Ten?

“There’s so much more talent behind our senior class, so, Lord willing, we’ll be able to be successful in the future,” senior running back Javon Ringer said. “And Penn State, they’re always bringing in talent and with Joe Paterno — personally, I don’t think he’s going anywhere … this will not be one-year wonder.”

It has taken 15 years for MSU and Penn State to face each other for a Big Ten championship on the season’s last weekend, and in that time, MSU is 4-11 against the Nittany Lions. With such a lopsided series, it’s hard to get a true rivalry going.

But times are changing.

Since the Land Grant Trophy was introduced in 1993, MSU and Penn State have played each other seven times in years where both teams have gone to postseason bowl games. In the first three games, the Spartans lost by an average of less than three points. In the last four, they’re 4-0, including a 34-31 win last season.

With that track record, as well as Penn State’s prominence and MSU’s reemergence among the Big Ten elite, Kershaw agrees with Ringer that the future of the potential rivalry is bright.

“Penn State and Michigan State have just as much tradition and success as Ohio State and Michigan, but it just seems like we’re good during different years,” Kershaw said.

“It’s good to finally see this is coming about and I’m sure the best is yet to come for these two teams.”