Like I said last night, you can't blame sanctions that hit in 2012 for weak schedules the next few years. Most of those were already in place. PSU has a long history of scheduling weak out of conference. I'm not making any of this up, you can look it up yourself. They had a home and home with Bama earlier this decade, a home and home with ND in 06-07 and then you have to go back to 02-03 with Nebraska (pre-Big 10) to find anything remotely challenging. Not to mention padding the schedules with multiple I-AA, MAC, etc. competition as well.
The fact remains we won't know how good PSU is until they play OSU. Squeaking past App State and thumping the likes of Pitt and Kent State really doesn't say much. Of course like the other guy said they'll be in the playoff conversation. Scheduling cupcakes and playing in a lousy conference will do that.