Man I wish we were in the Big 10
- Thread starter PittPoker
- Start date
True story. I was just in West Lafayette on Tuesday. I had to pull off the road for a conference call so I pull in some shopping center parking lot. As I am listening and participating on this call, I notice this gaunt 50 something lady (who was probably 30) wondering around......and she saw me and started to come over to the drivers side window and I just shook my head and yelled "get the hell out of here" to which was not on mute. It busted up everyone on the call when I had to explain why I yelled that.
Trust me, all the Big Ten towns aren't as bucolic as they like to make it seem.
I see the point of his story went straight over your nitter head. The woman in question was most likely a professional and they are found in small towns not just big cities.
Paterno's proposed all sport eastern conference was the right answer. It's a shame his greed and the inability of Pitt administrators to negotiate with the ego-maniac led to the clusterf--- known as the Big East in in the 1990's. It is ridiculous that Pitt, PSU,WVU, Rutgers, Syracuse, BC are in three different conferences.
The local idiot media never did investigate and give the true reasons this never came to be. To them, everything Paterno did was 100% correct.
I think that conference would have happened if not for one simple reason. Not only was it Paterno's idea, but he had to gloat about it and make it sound like he was some college football innovator that would go down in history as some savior. So yes, quite frankly it was his huge ego that turned Pitt and other schools away. Basically just to show Joe he wasn't always gonna get what he wants.
Absolutely true. And there are idiots everywhere. Look at the PSU bunch, who shout about how superior the Big Boring Ten is even with most BBT fan bases disliking PSU and its fans.
Correct - and it was JoePa's ego that refused to look at the ACC. Gene Corrigan has told people in private that as ACC Commissioner he would have strong armed the 8 Presidents to go to 12 with PSU, Pitt, Syracuse, and FSU if JoePa had shown any interest.
Think about that 12 team ACC at the same time the SEC went to 12.
Exactly, but that was his idea. The Eastern League was Joe's idea. Wouldn't have mattered how good of a conference it would've been, Paterno sold to all his followers that his idea was the best and everyone else was wrong. That was the start of the cult following. Nobody in State College ever heard the side of the story you just presented. It all worked out in the end though, nobody has been as big of an embarrassment to their conference as Penn State has been to the Big Ten.
Glen Mason sounded like Bobby the Brain Heenan and it would not have beenbterriblenif in fact he were analyzing a WWE match. Joel Bennanati is not bad. He pulled for Iowa but that was obviously because of his BTN affilation.
The main guy this week was pretty pro Narduzzi I thought. He kept touting the dominance of the defense. I didn't really pay attention to the other guy.
The main guy this week was pretty pro Narduzzi I thought. He kept touting the dominance of the defense. I didn't really pay attention to the other guy.
and in bigten every game is on btn, abc,espn, espn2, espnu, espn news. espn is not allowed to put a b10 team just on espn3
I love being in the ACC and am very happy PSU is not here with us. Sooner or later ND will join this conference, may not be for 8-10 years but its gonna happen. Clemson & FSU are very good programs, UNC & Duke are on the rise, if Miami ever dumps Golden they'll be back immediately & VaTech won't stay down for long. NC State is a sleeping giant thats due to wake up. Slowly but surely this league is getting its act together.
I actually saw Pitt beat the Buckeyes at Pitt Stadium-one of my fondest memories.
It seems to be a universal strategy to have easy OOC games, not only in the Big Ten.
It failed NOT because Paterno proposed it, but WHAT he proposed. No sharing of FB revenue, sharing of everything else, i.e. basketball revenue. He wanted to get other schools to fund psu hoops, because the psu A.D. only cared about football. the A.D. was Joe Paterno. NO WAY would Pitt, Cuse, etc. buy into that crapola. Cuse & B.C. were already in the BE. Pitt was THEN asked to join.....and we jumped at it.
I'd have to admit you know more about the situation than me. My point being tho, Joe was an ego-maniac and proposed something that immensely helped Penn State, everyone else not so much. Like you just said, nobody was buying it.
In all honesty, would the positives outweigh the negatives if we somehow became an Independent again like the old days? I'm guessing no, but we could have some entertaining schedules that would definitely increase attendance at Heinz. Also, it would be years before this could even happen if it was ever a possibility.
Bizarre post that does absolutely nothing to support the anti-B10 agenda you seem to be pushing.
News flash--there are poor, mentally ill, drug addicted and disenfranchised people in every small city in the United States. There are considerably more of them in every large city in the United States.
Are you kidding? With our huge national TV following, jam packed 95,000 seat stadium and worldwide brand merchandising?
Come on man. Without shared Power 5 conference TV revenue we'd be D2. There are only a couple of P5 programs that could survive as independents at the moment, ND being the obvious one. It's all about TV revenue.
Not kidding, but with the landscape of college football not entirely serious either. BYU can somehow do it though. Just trying to say that we could play bigger opponents week in and week out, which would draw in fans. But you are absolutely right about the revenue, that could kill us. Just a shame how college football has changed. Nebraska does not belong in the Big Ten, Texas does not belong in the Pac-12. Maryland will always be an ACC school no matter what conference they're in.
I'm glad to be in the ACC for reasons that are purely selfish: better...no - make that much better - road trips. I'd recommend the drives to Charlottesville and North Carolina to anyone who's never been there. And did I mention South Beach? 
I wouldn't even call that selfish. That is somewhat of a priority in conference realignment, and IMO should be an even bigger priority. These are supposed to be student athletes don't forget.I'm glad to be in the ACC for reasons that are purely selfish: better...no - make that much better - road trips. I'd recommend the drives to Charlottesville and North Carolina to anyone who's never been there. And did I mention South Beach?
Yes, JoePa was proposing something that would never fly. And that is true for more than just the fact that he wanted PSU football revenue to be outside sharing while, say, Syracuse basketball revenue would be shared. It was also because the northeast has the smallest %, by a good amount, of people who care deeply about college football. And that means that even if a league run from the northeast and composed of a majority of schools located in northeastern states is Major, to be fully strong and healthy, it must have a strong contingent of Southern and/or midwestern schools, enough to draw enough Southern and/or midwestern football fans to make it work.
That is just a fact of the development of college sports fan history. So for PSU and for Pitt and BC and Syracuse, ultimately the choices would be: look primarily south with the ACC, midwest with the BT, or remain in a non-Major conference.
JoePa not only refused to consider the ACC and getting PSU's 2 most important rival schools, Pitt and Syracuse, there with him, thereby preserving as much of old Eastern football as possible, but he turned his back totally on the northeast and its schools.
Make certain you go to Bobby Dodd Stadium at Historic Grant Field and to Clemson's Death Valley.I'm glad to be in the ACC for reasons that are purely selfish: better...no - make that much better - road trips. I'd recommend the drives to Charlottesville and North Carolina to anyone who's never been there. And did I mention South Beach?
Most ACC fans I know are glad to have Pitt in the ACC. Pittsburgh as an institution fits very well. I would love to have Penn State in the ACC as well, but they don't seem to show any interest. Texas on the other hand has shown interest recently, and I think ESPN might orchestrate Texas to the ACC at some point. I think if Texas were to come to the ACC they would come in the context of Notre Dame joining in football, and Texas would bring 4 others to have a western division. The ACC would grow to 20. I would think that the others would come from the Big XII, and that's the opening for West Virginia possibly. The ACC would probably let Texas name it's partners within reason. It would be up to Texas to suggest West Virginia. I would like to see Tulane to get ACC access to Louisiana. It could also create the opportunity to reinstate the Battle of the Rag Rivalry game with LSU for another ACC v SEC rivalry game. LSU would dominate initially, but that could change. Notre Dame might request Navy in the mix for their scheduling. A lot could happen.
No...it had to do with the fact he thought Penn State deserveda bigger slice of the pie than everyone else. Had he been willing to split the pie evenly...the league would have happened.
You're absolutely right: their game day experiences are legendary.
I was thinking more in terms of things to do other than football - venues where one could spend a long weekend and have a nice time. There is so much to do in the Charlottesville area, and the same thing with North Carolina. And South Beach is....well, South Beach.
That's Paterno's ego at it's finest. Just like Pitt had to go to State College every two years because they needed money for club teams. Bottom line, Joe cared about Joe and Joe only. He might have done some good things for his players along the way, but if it didn't benefit Penn State Football, he'd make some excuse why it didn't happen.
Outsiders perspective -- the Paterno conference would have been interesting had it formed, and would still be together. Paterno's terms for football would have caused a lot of infighting, though, and it could have been as dysfunctional as the Big East. At the time, the only school that could have said no to the terms was Pitt, and the conference would have needed both Pitt and Penn State to survive.
I think Pitt did the right thing in saying no at first, or wanting to come up with better revenue sharing. It's a shame that better terms couldn't have been worked out though, and that the Eastern conference didn't get off the ground. It would still be together today if it had happened.
If every time a conference game were played, they mentioned how Joe Paterno was the reason for this great conference, I would just puke.
Funny story, one of my friend's dad played at Pitt years ago. When he was recruited out of high school Joe Paterno called. From what my friend told me, his dad basically told JoePa to go ***** himself.
Honestly, you're right, Pitt does fit better in the B1G. With that said though, they didn't want you and you were in the sinking ship that was the Big East and you would currently be in the AAC with the Cincinnati's, UConn's, and East Carolina's of the world. ACC is a better option now isn't it?
Tar Heel...just to make you aware. PittPoker is a Penn State troll visiting the Pitt board attempting to stir the pot. I think every Pitt fan I know prefers being members of the ACC.
