Paterno Antsy for Big Ten Expansion
December 26, 2009 at 12:26 pm Tina Hay 2 comments
A friend called my attention to a story in yesterday’s Chicago Tribune about the recent talk of expanding the Big Ten. Joe Paterno has told ESPN (again) that he’d love to see a Big East team join the Big Ten, and he mentioned Rutgers, Pitt, Syracuse, “even Connecticut.” Having a 12th team would pave the way for a Big Ten championship game, which would keep the league in people’s minds a little longer each fall.
“Right now we play—and then we sit and watch,” the paper quotes Paterno as saying. “We were through (with the regular season) Nov. 21st.”
It’s not the first time Paterno has made his views on the subject known; last April, when he was in New York City for one of the Alumni Association’s “An Evening with Joe” events, he told ESPN pretty much the same thing.
It also brings to mind this item from our senior editor Ryan Jones, writing last March about Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese’s regret that that conference didn’t add Penn State back in 1982. Penn State was an independent at the time, and the Big East came within one vote of inviting the University to join. Interesting to think about how things might be different today if that vote had turned out differently.
Tina Hay, editor
Entry filed under: Alumni Association, Joe Paterno, Penn State football. Tags: An Evening with Joe, Big Ten, Connecticut, ESPN, Mike Tranghese, Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, UConn.
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