Paterno blames Pitt for Eastern league failure

Philadelphia Daily News
If Joe Paterno had had his way, Penn State, which had been an independent, would have been at the forefront of forming an Eastern football conference in the early 1990s. When that fell through, and Penn State joined the Big Ten Conference in 1993, a lot of the Nittany Lions' traditional rivalries ended.

With Penn State readying for Saturday's trip to Syracuse and its first game with the Orange since 1990, JoePa recalled that near-miss.

"Syracuse and a couple of other schools were all wrapped up in Big East basketball, but I thought I had pulled it off," Paterno recalled. "Then Pitt backed out.

"Contrary to what anyone tells you, the Big East tried to get us to go into it, just for basketball. I wanted an all-sports conference, but I couldn't quite swing it. We had to make up our minds because we were going to be left out in the cold unless we [joined a conference]. So we took a shot at the Big Ten. The Big Ten took us, and that was the end of it."

Paterno still harbors hard feelings toward Pitt for wrecking plans for what he described as a "nice little eight-team" league that would have included seven Eastern schools and Atlantic Coast Conference defector Maryland.

"We wouldn't play Pitt," Paterno said of one former archrival whose series with the Lions, the most recent and probably final renewal was in 2000, stands at 50-42-4 in favor of Penn State. *

- Bernard Fernandez


Link

We blame Pitt for causing WVU not to go to the national championship game last year too.

Joe Pa needs to move on. It is a different time now. BE needs Penn St but they are not leaving the B10 anytime soon. It would be nice if they are with us when it splits, but it is not happening. The only time they might consider is if ND is part of the deal.

Christ almighty, how many times can he tell the story? One of the reasons pitt backed out was because his 'plan' included penn st getting 60% of the fb revenue with the other 7 splitting the rest. He never mentions that part.

SF Husky Wrote:We blame Pitt for causing WVU not to go to the national championship game last year too.

damn right we do. They suck like crazy against OOC opponents but all of a sudden when they get to conference opponents they start playing for real..... its like they are trying to make the BE look bad. At least when Cuse sucks they suck all the time. But I agree Paterno is like a broken record player

Here's Jake Crouthamel's take from 'back in the day':

Quote:After only two years of existence as a conference formed specifically for men's basketball, football became an issue. Joe Paterno, head football coach and then Director of Athletics at Penn State, had been trying to put together an all-sports conference of the eastern Division IA independent schools. They included Syracuse, Boston College, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, West Virginia and Temple. While our football fortunes would be well served through such an alignment, it would have been a step backward for men's basketball. To enter into such an alignment Syracuse and Boston College would have had to leave the BIG EAST. With the reluctance of B.C. and Syracuse to do so, Penn State then asked for membership in the BIG EAST. This was a turning point in the Conferences history. If Penn State was accepted, our football would be protected. If Penn State was rejected, B.C. and Syracuse might have no other option but to leave the BIG EAST, and join together with the other Eastern independents. To expand membership in The BIG EAST Conference six affirmative votes were necessary. The vote was 5-3. Instead of taking Penn State, we invited Pittsburgh as the ninth member. At that time Pittsburgh and Penn State were bitter rivals, and Pittsburgh was less than enamored with aligning itself with Penn State. Pitt's membership in the BIG EAST, along with B.C. and Syracuse, checkmated Penn State's eastern all-sports conference, and gave the Conference one more Division IA school. This football issue nearly caused the premature demise of the BIG EAST. Clearly, three schools in the BIG EAST had no concept of the importance of football, but the others realized that this decision not to invite Penn State would come back to haunt us. In fact, football would dictate every future consideration of membership expansion of our "basketball" conference.

http://www.suathletics.com/sports/gen/2001/history.asp

Since football is the sport that drives the economic engine of the vast majority of athletic departments, those old worries about stepping backwards in basketball ring hollow. They ring as hollow now as they did then...

I didn't know Penn State tried to form an Eastern based conference. I learn something new everyday. So Paterno's plan included these schools?

Penn State
Syracuse
Rutgers
West Virginia
Maryland
Temple
Pittsburgh
Boston College

That would have been a heck of a conference. Add UConn and it's a solid 9 team true Eastern league.

But I agree with the other poster, he needs to move on. Unless he's trying to start a new conference realignment. Still, Penn State would be dumb to leave the rich Big Ten for a second version of the Big East and I really doubt Maryland would leave the ACC at this point.

UTEPDallas Wrote:But I agree with the other poster, he needs to move on. Unless he's trying to start a new conference realignment. Still, Penn State would be dumb to leave the rich Big Ten for a second version of the Big East and I really doubt Maryland would leave the ACC at this point.

While this may be true to today, back in the early 90's there wasn't as much money involved therefore less risk to try and make a move.

Ohio had tried to get in the mix over the years with an eastern all-sport conference. We had plans in the 60's to build a 55,000 seat stadium and leave the MAC. The economy and team tanked so plans changed.

It's apples and oranges. Penn State killed an earlier proposal put forth in the 1960s, and Paterno was the one that pulled that trigger. Maryland would have come on board at that time too.

It's ancient history. Time to move on...

UTEPDallas Wrote:I didn't know Penn State tried to form an Eastern based conference. I learn something new everyday. So Paterno's plan included these schools?

Penn State
Syracuse
Rutgers
West Virginia
Maryland
Temple
Pittsburgh
Boston College

That would have been a heck of a conference. Add UConn and it's a solid 9 team true Eastern league.

But I agree with the other poster, he needs to move on. Unless he's trying to start a new conference realignment. Still, Penn State would be dumb to leave the rich Big Ten for a second version of the Big East and I really doubt Maryland would leave the ACC at this point.

If that would have happened, the ACC would have explored adding Florida State, South Carolina, or Virginia Tech. I think Georgia Tech was already part of the ACC.

what might have been...

Jackson

Quote:THE EASTERN CONFERENCE

Syracuse coach Greg Robinson said that he's ''a believer that Penn State ought to be in the Big East'' and that the two teams should play a regular series. Paterno responded by explaining that his vision of an Eastern all-sports conference did not come to fruition in the 1980s and early 90s, prompting Penn State to join the Big Ten. Asked if that was among his biggest off-field disappointments as a coach, Paterno said, ''I think so.''

''If I could have gotten West Virginia and Syracuse and Pitt to come in, we would have had a good deal,'' Paterno said. ''But it didn't work. Can't look back and cry. I just get sick and tired of people saying, 'Why didn't you do this [scheduling] with this team?' Some things are impossible at certain times.''

http://www.mcall.com/sports/all-psnotes....5077.story

Jackson

Thats history and we cant go back, but we can learn from it now. Here we are in 2008 and we seem to be at a similar crossroad with regards to moving forward in football or continue to think in whats best for basketball.

I wish people obsessing over this Eastern League (yet you Paterno) need to let it go already. Anything could have happened by then, who's to say that Syracuse or especially Pitt wouldn't be in the Big Ten right now instead of Penn State.

If that league materialized granted under a fair revenue sharing scheme it would have been far stronger than the Big Ten in the long run. Also, UConn would have never stepped up to 1-A Football. Va Tech and ECU would have been members by the early 90s. A couple years after that Cincy and Louisville would have been added to get our championship game. The money we'd be making would have rivaled that of any of the other BCS conferences. However, this was all bumbled and we are where we are. That being said I like where we're at and like where we're all going to be in the future. And increasingly I think ECU and Temple are going to be part of that future.

Hindsight is 20/20. The Penn State ship has sailed, time to move on.

3 cliches in one line, not bad :) But all true.

Had Paterno not strained relationships with many schools over football scheduling (ask Syracuse about that one), he might have stood a chance. Instead, PSU's heavy-handed ways made it easy for Pitt and others to turn him down.

Joe always fails to menion hat his league called for schools keep their FB revenues while equally sharing their other revenues. So Penn State keeps all their FB money while the rest of the league subsidizes Penn State BB, At the time Penn State BB couldn't draw flies if they put a dung heap at center court. Currently, Joe is blocking resumption of the Pitt - PSU series. Once he is gone, I expect it will resume. Few people realize that on the academic side, Pitt and PSU have a strong relationship. There is a charity fundraisers golf outing that has former Pitt & PSU players competing against each other.

His vision of an eastern league was all about Penn State. It was a bad deal for Pitt and we knew it. Joe was the AD at Penn State at the time and he was looking to build a legacy. Joe feels that Pitt did this out of spite for him, when it was simple economics. Contrary to Joe's assertion, he didn't propose his all sports conference until Penn State was rejected by the BE.

I think Paterno likes to mention that so much because his Nittany Lions ain't been much in the Big Ten, and he dreams of the days of glory, when PSU ruled the east...

JoePa has altzheimers so leave him alone. His side on the Eastern Conference debate is all that he remembers from it. Pitt bailed on him. boo hoo.