A Big Loss Is Still Sweet for the Irish : Penn State: Nittany Lions score a 35-13 victory, but Sugar Bowl selects Notre Dame. Penn State’s black players will vote about going to Fiesta Bowl.

Notre Dame’s worst defeat in four seasons won’t stop the Sugar Bowl from taking the Fighting Irish over Penn State.

Wide receiver O.J. McDuffie caught two touchdown passes and ran 37 yards on a reverse for another touchdown as the eighth-ranked Nittany Lions defeated No. 12 Notre Dame, 35-13, Saturday.

Penn State is expected to receive an invitation to go to the Fiesta Bowl, but a decision on whether to attend will wait until its black players are consulted today.

Arizona, where the Fiesta Bowl is played Jan. 1, still has no Martin Luther King holiday, although communities around Sun Devil Stadium mark the day.

“We’ll discuss it,” said Richie Anderson, a black running back. “I don’t know what we’ll do. I can’t say what we’ll do.”

Said Coach Joe Paterno: “I will ask them whether they want to go, and if they don’t, we won’t go.”

Penn State players couldn’t understand why the Sugar Bowl didn’t wait until after Saturday’s games to pick its teams.

“We definitely took it as an insult,” McDuffie said. “They got beat last week, and we felt they would try to maneuver into a bowl.”

Anderson ran for 136 yards in 26 carries and scored twice as the Nittany Lions (9-2) handed Notre Dame its worst defeat since the 1988 Cotton Bowl.

Tony Sacca completed 14 of 20 passes for 151 yards and two touchdowns and became Penn State’s season passing yardage leader with 2,326 in 11 games.

Paterno said he was disappointed at the Sugar Bowl’s decision. Bowls were not supposed to make deals until Sunday.

“I was dubious as to whether people would stick to that,” Paterno said. “But I’m not unhappy with what’s going to happen to us tomorrow.”

The Irish, who averaged 37 points and 286 rushing yards a game, were limited to 86 yards on the ground.

Notre Dame’s Rick Mirer completed 16 of 37 for 198 yards and one touchdown. The Irish running backs, Jerome Bettis and Tony Brooks, combined for only 74 yards in 20 carries.

The Irish, who play Southeastern Conference champion Florida in the Sugar Bowl, hadn’t lost two in a row since dropping the last two games of the 1987 regular season. Notre Dame then lost to Texas A&M; in the Cotton Bowl, 35-10.

“I thought going into the game that Penn State was the best team we’d play, and I feel the same way going out,” Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz said. “Before the game I told my wife, ‘This could be ugly.’ All things pointed in that direction.”