That decision was pretty much Joe Paterno's to go to the Big 10....
The Big East was too basketball-centric at the time and the ACC never made a wholehearted attempt back in the late 1980's and early 1990's. Paterno likely thought the ACC was also too basketball-centric and if he did he was absolutely right. Paterno liked the Big 10 because back in that time (early 1990's), the Big 10 didn't recruit the East like they do today. The Midwest was still rich in talent and they usually went to Texas or California or Florida to find skilled talent. Paterno believed that his program would do well since they could continue to recruit the top talent in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, DC, and New York and even NOVA.
IMHO, I think if Penn State were looking for a conference 10-15 years ago (before there was the BTN), they would've joined the ACC just based on the rich talent in the Southeast and the fact that the ACC had some football schools like FSU, Miami, Clemson, and Virginia Tech. The ACC was a mediocre football conference when PSU was an independent. The Big 10 was very good and had much more television exposure than the ACC. Also, Paterno never wanted to play teams like Tech because a loss would likely hurt his recruiting efforts in Virginia. Joe kept it safe and played Rutgers and Temple in the region. He even stopped playing Maryland, Pitt, and WVU.
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In response to this post by Pylons)
Posted: 09/24/2018 at 11:54AM