As far as Penn State being cultish, another poster noted that it's weird having a school like that in the Northeast. This is the reason why Penn State wouldn't have worked in the Big East or any Eastern based conference. It was going to be a matter of time before Penn State was going to bail out because it has nothing in common with the former Eastern independents except for maybe West Virginia. It was always going to be an odd arrangement no matter what. Even the ACC from yesteryear was not a good fit for PSU. As much as I hate to type this, Penn State is a SEC school trapped in the Northeast. The type of behavior that fans from Pitt, Temple, Rutgers, Boston College, etc find cultish would be perfectly normal in SEC and Big XII states. This is why Penn State to the Big Ten was inevitable no matter if the Big East caved to Paterno's demands or if he got away in creating an Eastern based conference under his own terms and conditions. The Big Ten offers PSU academic prestige with high research institutions, rabid fan bases in the states of Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa (I don't include Nebraska because they were in the Big Eight when PSU was invited). The only geographic conference that made sense and was a cultural fit when the decision was made to join a conference was the Big Ten. This is why I laugh when posters here throw this scenarios about Penn State being the anchor in the Big East, an Eastern based conference and even the ACC.