gosports1 Wrote:It makes more sense now. I didnt know Penn St. wanted such a lopsided deal. Combine that with their lack of BB talent and its no wonder they didnt get in.
The BB schools were worried that PSU would take over the league - not in BB - but JoePa would try and run it. Would JoePa have forced a FB conference into the BE sooner? Stuff like this......It would be the equivalent to what do we do with the pink elephant in the room.
gosports1 Wrote:Although in that scenario i would think the FB schools would have said no. (unless of course they could renogotiate the $ distribution at a later date)
The idea behind the unequal revenue sharing made the all sports conference you list below (sans Maryland) a non starter for Pitt, SU, and BC.
However, being part of BE BB (and other sports) would have allowed PSU to keep their FB revenue (just like BC, SU, and Pitt did when they were part of the BE) until BE FB was formed.
The BE didn't do anything with FB until 1994 - after PSU went to the Big 10 (in 1989 but they didn't start BT play until 1993) and FSU went to the ACC. Miami was added in 1990 or 1991 but there was still a few years before the FB got going. There was an article form the Courier Journal that the Eastern Indys (Pitt, BC, SU, WVu, RU, Temple, Miami) and the schools essentially from the old Metro at the time (ECU, Cinn, UL, others) met and considered the idea of forming an all sports conference but the BE decided to expand for FB with both FB and BB on CBS.
gosports1 Wrote:If psu did all that knowing they would be turned down and make a move for the B10 it was a smart move. I wonder why Joe Pa wont own up to it.
I did find some info on what teams we're targeted for the eastern 8.(penn st, pitt, wvu,rutgers, maryland,temple,bc and syracuse)
They did not do that so they would be turned down from the BE. The drive to goto the Big 10 was essentially spearheaded by Bryce Jordan. He came to PSU from UTexas and saw the need for PSU to be aligned with the bigger state schools (like minded institutions like 'land grants') in the midwest rather than the mix of private/public schools in the east.
The BE at that time would have only included RU and WVu as the two state schools - like PSU - and RU wasn't putting any money into FB and WVu isn't the same academically as PSU. The east doesn't have the 'state school u.' mentality that other regions have. Education in the NE is dominated by privates.
BTW - the only person who mentions Maryland in this all sports eastern conference is JoePa. Although, I think you can safely say that the all sports eastern would be those 7 schools listed above sans Maryland.
One thing you need to keep in mind is that there was no guarantee that PSU would have actually stayed in this 7 team all sports conference either. Again, it would have depended on the committments from the seven schools involved and who the presidents of PSU would be. Without the 'push' from Bryce Jordan - does PSU move to the Big 10 (it was PSU that pursued the Big 10 and not the other way around)?
The interesting aspect of this is course with PSU in the league (and assuming they stay), that the ACC is essentially locked into their region with no hope of expanding north (BE) or south (SEC). I have no idea where Miami would be - maybe they still end up in the BE because of their NE ties. Does PSU eventually leave with say BC and SU to the ACC? Does UConn ever upgrade to 1A FB? Where is VT, UCinn, and UL?
