When Steve Pederson, athletic director at the University of Nebraska and chairman of the Division I Football Issues Committee, briefed the media six weeks ago on the various proposals that the committee considered, there was one topic at the forefront of his mind.

Way back during my freshman year, a homeless stranger led a couple of my buddies on an epic quest for fried chicken. After wandering around West Philly late at night, they all ended up at Crown's on 40th and Market. Bonhomie flowed forth, and much crispy fowl was consumed.

When Penn State scored the winning goal in its 3-2 overtime win over Penn last night, it was Kevin Sweetland - not starting goalkeeper Drew Healy - who watched the fatal header fly by. Four minutes earlier, Healy had been sent off in a strange incident that gave new meaning to the phrase "sacrificing yourself for the team.

The Athletic Department has announced that the Line - when students sleep over at the Palestra to get their hands on the choice seats for the upcoming season - will take place on Oct. 5, the same night as SPEC's Ben Kweller concert.

There was no better place to for poet and Penn professor Thomas Devaney to share the fruits of his labor. Devaney read from his new book of poetry, "A Series of Small Boxes," yesterday night at a book release party held at the Arts Cafe in the Kelly Writers House.

Pens and pencils? Check. Notebooks and paper? Check. Computer? Check. Cell phone equipped with a GPS device linked to your school's public-safety division? For students at schools like Fairleigh Dickinson University and Georgia Gwinnett College, the back-to-school-shopping list has gotten a little bit longer.

Joe Sandberg is back in the lineup -and will start Saturday at Dartmouth -- but that doesn't mean he'll be carrying the ball at the clip he was before his injury. Coach Al Bagnoli said yesterday that he will be reluctant to give the running back more than 25 carries on Saturday.

"Dutch Total Football?" Men's soccer coach Rudy Fuller laughed when his team was compared to the 1970s Netherlands teams with their flowing soccer styles, where players were versatile enough to play any position on the field. But it's no joke - for the Quakers, no positions are set in stone.

Theft: Sept. 20 - Two male students reported that the tires of their bicycles, which were secured on the 3900 block of Irving Street, had been removed by an unknown suspect at about 1:20 a.m. Sept. 20 - Ronald Carter, a 23-year-old resident of the 2100 block of Mt.

Senior Dan Coleman, who usually starts at wide receiver alongside classmate Braden Lepisto, was conspicuously absent from Penn's lineup after being benched for disciplinary reasons.

Your meal plan is now your ticket to world-class cuisine. At least, it can be. Once a month. That's the idea behind Penn's Guest Chef program, a series of nights at campus dining halls in which big-name area chefs are invited to prepare one dish for one evening.

The second annual Penn World's Fair 2007, held in Houston Hall yesterday evening, truly lived up to its name as representatives from over 40 groups gathered in the Hall of Flags to share information with interested students. The Office of the Provost, the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education and Penn Abroad were among the event's sponsors, and a variety of groups ranging from academic organizations to cultural groups to service-based organizations were present.

Despite the University's endowment hitting $6.6 billion, many alumni say that a wealthier Penn doesn't affect their overall inclination to donate to their alma mater.

Sometimes, hard work just isn't enough. That can ring especially true when it comes to basketball recruiting. Especially the case of Neil Duvall, a 6-foot-8 small forward from Southlake, Texas. After narrowing his list down to Penn and Furman, Duvall ultimately chose the latter, a South Carolina school with fewer than 2,700 undergraduates.

Seniors kicked off the Senior Class Gift Drive yesterday, beginning the year-long process of encouraging the class to leave a financial mark on the University.

If you have a maintenance request, you better hope it's an emergency. That way you can call Facilities Services directly. Either that or be prepared to lie and say it is, because there's no way you're going to figure out how to use FacilityFocus, Penn's new Web site for service requests.

After Fadeke Agboke walked out of her Penn admissions interview two years ago, she thought her responses were dull and her chances of getting in were slim. "I thought I was saying things they've heard before," she said. But much to Agboke's surprise, her worries turned out to be superfluous - she got in.