Penn State’s Joe Paterno once envisioned a super conference in the east and urged other programs to get on board with this idea. It turned out that schools such as Pittsburgh, Temple, Syracuse, West Virginia and Boston College liked his idea and rolled with it without Paterno to form the Big East. Many Penn State fans will tell you those old rivals did not want to be a part of a conference with Penn State because they feared the Nittany Lions would dominate in conference play. At the time these decisions were made, it made sense. Penn State was a power program and only Pittsburgh could legitimately hang with them on an annual basis.
Now all of those schools, except for Temple, are a part of one of the first of the emerging super conferences in the ACC (Pittsburgh and Syracuse wil join in 2014) and some are saying the Nittany Lions would be a great pick-up for the ACC in a move to 16 members. Andrew Jones of FOX Sports South and FOX Sports Carolina addressed the idea earlier this week by writing that the ACC should go after Penn State and Notre Dame.
Allow me to say this for the third time this week. It’s not going to happen, but that doesn’t mean it should. That’s right, I fully believe that Penn State could be well off, perhaps better off in the ACC than in the Big Ten.
I have had a number of Penn State fans suggest to me that it is just not an academic fit for the school to be in the ACC. Penn State has established a number of valuable relationships in the Big Ten for research projects and funding and perhaps there would be a negative effect with switching conferences, but since when was it a bad thing to be in the same group as schools like Duke, Virginia, Wake Forest and North Carolina, just to name a few. According to the most recent US News college rankings, Penn State is the fourth highest in the Big Ten. They would be smack-dab in the middle in the ACC with the additions of Pittsburgh and Syracuse. Something tells me Penn State would still find a way to benefit academically in the ACC. And who is to say they could not continue some relationships with Big Ten institutions? It is not uncommon for universities to work with other schools affiliated in different conferences.
Oh yeah, I forgot. That is all about football, right?
Well let’s talk about football.
Since joining the Big Ten Penn State has largely been playing in the shadows of Ohio State and Michigan, a position few people predicted to play out the way it has when Penn State joined the conference. Penn State was supposed to be one of the top contenders in the conference every season in the Big Ten. Instead the Nittany Lions have made just two trips to the Rose Bowl since 1993. It would have been three trips but the BCS championship game was played in the Rose Bowl in the 2005 season (you may remember that game). Penn State would figure to be more of a conference contender in the ACC, competing against old regional rivals such as Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Boston College, Maryland, Virginia and Virginia Tech. The travel distance would be considerably more affordable for Penn State (and not that it matters in the conversation, but the fans too) and they could once again be the
Of course, a move from the Big Ten to the ACC would have a certain amount of backlash. Penn State would be labeled as a school who felt they could not compete with Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nebraska. Some would call them weak (some already do) and wussy for going to a conference that is not as rich in football. While many fans would probably applaud a move to rekindle regional rivalries with schools they used to play all the time, there would also be a number of Penn State fans who would criticize the move.
Not me. I think moving to the ACC would be a great move for Penn State, but a source within the football department has confirmed to me that they are very happy with their situation in the Big Ten.
Of course, in conference realignment, one thing can be said one day and another could happen the next, so who knows what happens.
Follow Kevin McGuire on Twitter @KevinOnCFB.
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