(03-21-2019 08:12 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote: As a hypothetical alternative history I wonder what the ACC and Big Ten look like if Penn St were to either be kicked out or voluntarily left for the ACC:
Penn St gets the spot in the ACC that Pitt got. Syracuse is chosen as #14.
Without the lure of Penn St, Maryland never leaves the ACC.
Pitt and Rutgers are the only Northeastern AAU replacement options for the Big Ten. Rutgers gets picked for it's market.
Pitt and Louisville POSSIBLY keep the Big East factions together, eliminating the need for Tulsa and Tulane and the formation of the New Big East.
The other option is the Big Ten turns its attention from the Northeastern markets and fills Penn St's spot, and possibly a 13th and 14th, with AAU former Big 8 schools.
If Maryland isn't game, then I think the Big Ten takes Rutgers (ostensibly for the NYC market), Syracuse (which may actually have more of the NYC market than Rutgers), and Pitt (to get back into PA). This of course means that the only Northeast teams Penn State would get to play in the ACC are BC and potentially whomever is added as #14. (UConn? Temple? Maybe Northeast-adjacent WVU, if PSU insisted on it? That means Louisville to the Big 12, incidentally.) Also UMD, if you count MD as Northeast.
ACC
Atlantic: Boston College, Miami-FL, Maryland, Penn State, Virginia, Virginia Tech, West Virginia
Coastal: Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, NC State, North Carolina, Wake Forest
Protected crossovers: Miami-FL/Florida State, Virginia/North Carolina
Big Ten
East: Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse
West: Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue, Wisconsin
Protected crossover: Indiana/Purdue