We know the story, the ACC wanted Miami, but Miami wanted SU and BC as tag-alongs. That was the plan until Virginia politics changed things a bit. Let's talk about this moment in time, I would like to propose a different approach.

Miami states their demands, the ACC is not ready for that leap so far into the NE so instead they take VT, WVU and Pitt instead. Divisions could have been this:

FSU, GT, Clem, VT, WVU, Pitt

UNC, NCSU, Wake, Duke, UVA, UMd

...or take all the football playing schools (except Temple) and finish off BE football once and for all. The Gator, Orange and other bowls with BE ties would have had more B1G and SEC matches, the ACCN would have launched much sooner with a wider audience. The ACCCG would basically be the BE vs ACC, which would have had it's own appeal.

(03-01-2024 04:18 PM)Garrettabc Wrote:  We know the story, the ACC wanted Miami, but Miami wanted SU and BC as tag-alongs. That was the plan until Virginia politics changed things a bit. Let's talk about this moment in time, I would like to propose a different approach.

Miami states their demands, the ACC is not ready for that leap so far into the NE so instead they take VT, WVU and Pitt instead. Divisions could have been this:

FSU, GT, Clem, VT, WVU, Pitt

UNC, NCSU, Wake, Duke, UVA, UMd

...or take all the football playing schools (except Temple) and finish off BE football once and for all. The Gator, Orange and other bowls with BE ties would have had more B1G and SEC matches, the ACCN would have launched much sooner with a wider audience. The ACCCG would basically be the BE vs ACC, which would have had it's own appeal.

If the ACC had taken SU and Pitt at the same time it took VT, Miami, and BC, the Big East would have imploded immediately. Leaving SU and Pitt was like leaving UNC and Duke in the ACC. Somehow, the they'd carry the ACC on no matter who else is lost.

I'd move Duke into the BE side and keep a cross division game between them and UNC. Divisions and cross division games would have been thusly:

FSU - UM
UNC - Duke
NCSU - Pitt
Wake - BC
Clem - WVU
UVA - VT
UMd - RU
GT - SU

No.

1. There is no invitation going to West Virginia.

2. The deal that Gene Corrigan, Paul Dee, and Les Robinson had been working on for a decade prior involved Miami, Syracuse, and BC from the outset.

The purpose of expansion from 9 was to get to 12.

West Virginia was academically unacceptable to the group and would have been blackballed by MD, UVa, Duke, WF, and GT.
Rutgers was athletically unacceptable to the group and would have been blackballed by MD, NC State, UNC, Clemson, FSU, and GT.

That leaves the same mix of schools that was always going to be in the mix - Miami, BC, Syracuse, Pitt, VT, and South Carolina. In 2003 the ACC Basketball Tournament still matters to Duke, MD, and UNC and not all the bad blood was gone although UNC in particular was trying.

That leaves Miami, BC, Pitt, VT, and Syracuse. Ironically Pitt was the only school that none of the 9 had a problem with.

At the moment UNC announced it would not vote to expand, they sealed VT's invitation because that put UVa under the gun.

For reasons I don't know to this day, no one seemed to have a relation with Pitt and what strategically should have been Miami, VT, and Pitt, becaume Miami and VT, look at ND, then BC.

I briefly heard that VT, WVU and Miami were going to be added to the ACC some where in the 2002 time frame as Miamis then president wanted football schools. But the ACC balked and the President of Miami was kicked out in favor of Donna Shalala. She wanted her alma mater Syracuse and BC. And the rest is history.

(03-01-2024 10:25 PM)ChrisLords Wrote:  I briefly heard that VT, WVU and Miami were going to be added to the ACC some where in the 2002 time frame as Miamis then president wanted football schools. But the ACC balked and the President of Miami was kicked out in favor of Donna Shalala. She wanted her alma mater Syracuse and BC. And the rest is history.

Whoever said that was talking out of their anus.

Here are a couple of articles. One before the timeframe, one after:

https://www.deseret.com/1990/7/28/188734...ansion-br/

By Deseret News, Bill Glauber, The Baltimore Sun
The Atlantic Coast Conference took an important first step into the expansion race Wednesday.
Essentially the ACC agreed to formalize the informal, as league officials met and said they would explore expanding the league from its eight-school alignment."One of the things that is clear is that the conference feels pretty good about itself," ACC Commissioner Gene Corrigan said.
"We don't feel the need to rush any kind of expansion. But we're not at all closed to any expansion."
The pronouncement came at the conclusion of a five-hour meeting among ACC athletic directors and faculty representatives in Greensboro, N.C. The expansion campaign, which began with behind-the-scenes maneuvering following Penn State's entry into the Big Ten, is now official and declared in other conferences.
Wednesday, the league discussed the merits of 10 schools outside the conference. Among those mentioned as ACC expansion targets are Navy, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, South Carolina, Florida State, Miami, West Virginia, Boston College, Rutgers and Virginia Tech.
"We discussed south, north, east and west," Corrigan said.
Officials confined their debate to the possibility of including schools on a full-membership basis, closing off a move to recruit schools as football-only members.
That action could pose a threat to the Big East, a powerhouse in basketball but a non-entity in football.
Big East members Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Boston College have been searching for ways to place their football programs in a conference. West Virginia, South Carolina, Rutgers and Virginia Tech also have sought conference ties for their football teams.
Miami has courted the ACC in the past in an attempt to get its fledgling basketball program aligned with a powerful basketball conference.
Florida State is a prime target of the Southeastern Conference. Navy, by virtue of its strong athletic tradition, top academic reputation and national following, remains an attractive candidate for the ACC.
Television revenue from football is the driving force behind the expansion and realignment talks. The SEC and Metro Conference are also engaged in expansion talks that could affect the ACC.
"We came up with nothing really concrete this time," Corrigan said. "The most important thing is we didn't close off the idea of expansion. There are other things, nationally and regionally, that have to play themselves out. We'll be talking to people."
Corrigan joked that he would act as a "one-man search committee." As a former athletic director at Virginia and Notre Dame, and a key member on several National Collegiate Athletic Association committees, Corrigan is one of the most influential executives in college athletics.
Corrigan said that he would attempt to keep the search low key. Six of the eight ACC schools must approve new membership applications, and several ACC presidents have stated they will play a role in the expansion process.
"It's such a sensitive thing, right now," Corrigan said. "There really isn't a whole lot you can say."



Penn State in ACC instead of B1G? Former commish Gene Corrigan says it easily could've happened
• Updated: Jul. 23, 2013, 4:00 a.m.|
• Published: Jul. 23, 2013, 3:00 a.m.
•
•
•
•
Subscribers can gift articles to anyone
By
• David Jones | djones@pennlive.com
GeneCorrigan.jpg
Gene Corrigan was athletics director at Virginia (1971-81) and Notre Dame (1981-87) and commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference (1987-97).
(Univ. of Virginia)
Imagine Penn State in an Eastern all-sports conference including Syracuse and maybe even Pittsburgh. Not just any Eastern conference, not an ersatz Big East, but one with regular road trips to mild locales in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
It was a hair's breadth from happening. But at the 11th hour, after six months of haggling among its athletic directors and coaches, the Big Ten's presidents voted by the narrowest of possible margins to follow through on their stated intention and officially admit Penn State into its fold.
So ended in June 1990 a drama that very nearly extended PSU to Plan B in its quest to join a major conference. And what would that plan have been?
According to the man who was then commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference, he would have done everything in his considerable power to convince his league's university presidents that inviting Penn State was a no-brainer. Gene Corrigan says Penn State would likely have become a member of the ACC and would now have been so for over two decades.
I first heard this story from then-Penn State athletics director Jim Tarman back in 1994. He told me that Corrigan called him shortly after PSU's stunning invitation to the league became public on Dec. 14, 1989. It was an invitation fast-tracked by then-Illinois president Stan Ikenberry, a former Penn State vice provost, who was then chairman of the Big Ten presidents “Council of Ten.”
Only the league presidents knew; nobody else, including the Big Ten ADs, faculty reps and coaches, had been told. And when the ADs were gathered on a conference call and informed by their new commissioner, many were not amused.
Michigan's Bo Schembechler, then just retired as football coach and having assumed the AD's role, reacted with unbridled anger. He told me in 1994 that after a moment of stony silence he blurted into his phone to Delany for all to hear: “You gotta be s--tting me!”
Corrigan remembers being just as flabbergasted as everyone else, then remorseful that the ACC hadn't thought of inviting Penn State first. Tarman told me Corrigan called him the next day and lamented: “Why didn't you tell us you wanted in a major conference? We would've taken you in a heartbeat.”
“It's true,” said Corrigan, now 85 but as spry and sharp as when he was Notre Dame athletics director in the 1980s. His first reaction upon hearing the news?
“Aww, s---!,” replied Corrigan, using the barnyard expletive with a laugh. “What were we thinking of? What were we not thinking of?
“I remember having a meeting with [associate commissioner] Tom Mickle and some of our people and I said, 'We have been sitting here sound asleep while this thing happened.' And that's when we started thinking about getting Florida State.
“I remember saying, 'It's time. This is something that's got to be done. This is a new time in the world. Let's not sit here and regret later on because we didn't do anything.' I drove our people absolutely crazy. They used to get so mad at me because I kept bringing up expansion.
“But that was a great move that the Big Ten made. It was fabulous. I was just blown over. And I congratulated the Big Ten because I thought that was a hell of a move by them.”
But what if the 7-3 vote of the Big Ten presidents had gone 6-4 and the conference had been forced to renege on its offer? Would the ACC have pounced? Corrigan said he would have made it his mission:
“I would've liked it very much. Our people would have. Because we had a lot of respect for them. They were a good solid program. There were no bad stories about them out there.
“I would've. Now, I don't know if our [presidents] would have bought it. But I would have had no reservations at all.
“I honestly thought that it would've been a lot easier in a lot of ways for Penn State to come to the ACC. It would have been a whole lot easier travel-wise for them to be part of us.”
Had PSU become an ACC rather than Big Ten member in 1990, the potential ramifications by this time are staggering. Florida State likely would have still come aboard in 1991 to make the ACC 10 schools. But what about the 2003 expansion that added Virginia Tech, Miami and Boston College from the Big East? Would the ACC have bothered with BC with Penn State already in the fold and surely dominating the Northeast college football market? And is there any conceivable way Maryland leaves the ACC last year with neighbor PSU already in?
Moreover, does the Big Ten have the ratings boom-pow to launch the Big Ten Network with such audacity and demand the rates from cable providers it has? Does it make the money it has without Penn State? Does Nebraska jump from the Big 12 without that guaranteed annual revenue?
Of course, Penn State would not undo the move now. Neither would anyone in the Big Ten.
PSU has immeasurably benefitted from research resources and grant opportunities provided by Big Ten membership. It is a much better academic institution for having been a member 23 years.
The conference has very measurably benefitted from Penn State's massive alumni base, fan support and television ratings for football. They are part and parcel of the launch six years ago of the BTN.
That doesn't make the game of “What If...” any less intriguing. And it all could have been a very different story but for a single president's vote a generation ago.
The 2013 Big Ten football season will mark the 20th year that Penn State has competed in the storied conference. Find the rest of our Penn State: 20 years in the Big Ten series below.
• Penn State in ACC instead of B1G? Former commish Gene Corrigan says it easily could've happened
• Penn State and the Big Ten: A look back at the Nittany Lions' first season (1993)
• Sizing up the highs and lows of Penn State's first season in the Big Ten
• Penn State Numerology 101: A look at Penn State's inaugural Big Ten season

Whenever someone hits you with revisionist history, understand that West Virginia is not getting an expansion vote from Duke, Uva, GT, and WF come Hell or High water. Any expansion vote prior to 2004 was taken when ACC Basketball Tournament Ticket Books were worth more than their weight in Gold. They were the underpinning of the Duke, UNC, UVa, and MD booster programs.

Between the 800 SAT Rule of 1962 (until it was declared unconstitutional) and the primacy of the ACC basketball tournament, the ACC quasi actively turned away inquires from Florida State, Miami, and Florida in the 1950's, 1960's, and early 1970's. Penn State was not actively pursued in the 1970's and 1980's. If the ACC had mind readers are work 50 years ago, Florida and Penn State would be in the ACC today, but FSU and Pitt would not. The ACC might have VT or SC, but probably not both.

When you take PSU off the board, the B10 targets Pitt and or Nebraska. If you have Florida, the SEC immediately targets FSU from the day Florida announces. And guess who a big 10 with Pitt and perhaps Syracuse appeals to - yep ND.

(03-01-2024 11:20 PM)SouthernConfBoy Wrote:  Here are a couple of articles. One before the timeframe, one after:

https://www.deseret.com/1990/7/28/188734...ansion-br/

By Deseret News, Bill Glauber, The Baltimore Sun
The Atlantic Coast Conference took an important first step into the expansion race Wednesday.
Essentially the ACC agreed to formalize the informal, as league officials met and said they would explore expanding the league from its eight-school alignment."One of the things that is clear is that the conference feels pretty good about itself," ACC Commissioner Gene Corrigan said.
"We don't feel the need to rush any kind of expansion. But we're not at all closed to any expansion."
The pronouncement came at the conclusion of a five-hour meeting among ACC athletic directors and faculty representatives in Greensboro, N.C. The expansion campaign, which began with behind-the-scenes maneuvering following Penn State's entry into the Big Ten, is now official and declared in other conferences.
Wednesday, the league discussed the merits of 10 schools outside the conference. Among those mentioned as ACC expansion targets are Navy, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, South Carolina, Florida State, Miami, West Virginia, Boston College, Rutgers and Virginia Tech.
"We discussed south, north, east and west," Corrigan said.
Officials confined their debate to the possibility of including schools on a full-membership basis, closing off a move to recruit schools as football-only members.
That action could pose a threat to the Big East, a powerhouse in basketball but a non-entity in football.
Big East members Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Boston College have been searching for ways to place their football programs in a conference. West Virginia, South Carolina, Rutgers and Virginia Tech also have sought conference ties for their football teams.
Miami has courted the ACC in the past in an attempt to get its fledgling basketball program aligned with a powerful basketball conference.
Florida State is a prime target of the Southeastern Conference. Navy, by virtue of its strong athletic tradition, top academic reputation and national following, remains an attractive candidate for the ACC.
Television revenue from football is the driving force behind the expansion and realignment talks. The SEC and Metro Conference are also engaged in expansion talks that could affect the ACC.
"We came up with nothing really concrete this time," Corrigan said. "The most important thing is we didn't close off the idea of expansion. There are other things, nationally and regionally, that have to play themselves out. We'll be talking to people."
Corrigan joked that he would act as a "one-man search committee." As a former athletic director at Virginia and Notre Dame, and a key member on several National Collegiate Athletic Association committees, Corrigan is one of the most influential executives in college athletics.
Corrigan said that he would attempt to keep the search low key. Six of the eight ACC schools must approve new membership applications, and several ACC presidents have stated they will play a role in the expansion process.
"It's such a sensitive thing, right now," Corrigan said. "There really isn't a whole lot you can say."



Penn State in ACC instead of B1G? Former commish Gene Corrigan says it easily could've happened
• Updated: Jul. 23, 2013, 4:00 a.m.|
• Published: Jul. 23, 2013, 3:00 a.m.
•
•
•
•
Subscribers can gift articles to anyone
By
• David Jones | djones@pennlive.com
GeneCorrigan.jpg
Gene Corrigan was athletics director at Virginia (1971-81) and Notre Dame (1981-87) and commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference (1987-97).
(Univ. of Virginia)
Imagine Penn State in an Eastern all-sports conference including Syracuse and maybe even Pittsburgh. Not just any Eastern conference, not an ersatz Big East, but one with regular road trips to mild locales in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
It was a hair's breadth from happening. But at the 11th hour, after six months of haggling among its athletic directors and coaches, the Big Ten's presidents voted by the narrowest of possible margins to follow through on their stated intention and officially admit Penn State into its fold.
So ended in June 1990 a drama that very nearly extended PSU to Plan B in its quest to join a major conference. And what would that plan have been?
According to the man who was then commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference, he would have done everything in his considerable power to convince his league's university presidents that inviting Penn State was a no-brainer. Gene Corrigan says Penn State would likely have become a member of the ACC and would now have been so for over two decades.
I first heard this story from then-Penn State athletics director Jim Tarman back in 1994. He told me that Corrigan called him shortly after PSU's stunning invitation to the league became public on Dec. 14, 1989. It was an invitation fast-tracked by then-Illinois president Stan Ikenberry, a former Penn State vice provost, who was then chairman of the Big Ten presidents “Council of Ten.”
Only the league presidents knew; nobody else, including the Big Ten ADs, faculty reps and coaches, had been told. And when the ADs were gathered on a conference call and informed by their new commissioner, many were not amused.
Michigan's Bo Schembechler, then just retired as football coach and having assumed the AD's role, reacted with unbridled anger. He told me in 1994 that after a moment of stony silence he blurted into his phone to Delany for all to hear: “You gotta be s--tting me!”
Corrigan remembers being just as flabbergasted as everyone else, then remorseful that the ACC hadn't thought of inviting Penn State first. Tarman told me Corrigan called him the next day and lamented: “Why didn't you tell us you wanted in a major conference? We would've taken you in a heartbeat.”
“It's true,” said Corrigan, now 85 but as spry and sharp as when he was Notre Dame athletics director in the 1980s. His first reaction upon hearing the news?
“Aww, s---!,” replied Corrigan, using the barnyard expletive with a laugh. “What were we thinking of? What were we not thinking of?
“I remember having a meeting with [associate commissioner] Tom Mickle and some of our people and I said, 'We have been sitting here sound asleep while this thing happened.' And that's when we started thinking about getting Florida State.
“I remember saying, 'It's time. This is something that's got to be done. This is a new time in the world. Let's not sit here and regret later on because we didn't do anything.' I drove our people absolutely crazy. They used to get so mad at me because I kept bringing up expansion.
“But that was a great move that the Big Ten made. It was fabulous. I was just blown over. And I congratulated the Big Ten because I thought that was a hell of a move by them.”
But what if the 7-3 vote of the Big Ten presidents had gone 6-4 and the conference had been forced to renege on its offer? Would the ACC have pounced? Corrigan said he would have made it his mission:
“I would've liked it very much. Our people would have. Because we had a lot of respect for them. They were a good solid program. There were no bad stories about them out there.
“I would've. Now, I don't know if our [presidents] would have bought it. But I would have had no reservations at all.
“I honestly thought that it would've been a lot easier in a lot of ways for Penn State to come to the ACC. It would have been a whole lot easier travel-wise for them to be part of us.”
Had PSU become an ACC rather than Big Ten member in 1990, the potential ramifications by this time are staggering. Florida State likely would have still come aboard in 1991 to make the ACC 10 schools. But what about the 2003 expansion that added Virginia Tech, Miami and Boston College from the Big East? Would the ACC have bothered with BC with Penn State already in the fold and surely dominating the Northeast college football market? And is there any conceivable way Maryland leaves the ACC last year with neighbor PSU already in?
Moreover, does the Big Ten have the ratings boom-pow to launch the Big Ten Network with such audacity and demand the rates from cable providers it has? Does it make the money it has without Penn State? Does Nebraska jump from the Big 12 without that guaranteed annual revenue?
Of course, Penn State would not undo the move now. Neither would anyone in the Big Ten.
PSU has immeasurably benefitted from research resources and grant opportunities provided by Big Ten membership. It is a much better academic institution for having been a member 23 years.
The conference has very measurably benefitted from Penn State's massive alumni base, fan support and television ratings for football. They are part and parcel of the launch six years ago of the BTN.
That doesn't make the game of “What If...” any less intriguing. And it all could have been a very different story but for a single president's vote a generation ago.
The 2013 Big Ten football season will mark the 20th year that Penn State has competed in the storied conference. Find the rest of our Penn State: 20 years in the Big Ten series below.
• Penn State in ACC instead of B1G? Former commish Gene Corrigan says it easily could've happened
• Penn State and the Big Ten: A look back at the Nittany Lions' first season (1993)
• Sizing up the highs and lows of Penn State's first season in the Big Ten
• Penn State Numerology 101: A look at Penn State's inaugural Big Ten season

Thank you for posting this. It has long been my belief that not adding Penn State back then was THE misstep for the ACC. Penn State in the ACC changes everything afterwards.

(03-02-2024 12:14 PM)ENCterrapin Wrote:  

(03-01-2024 11:20 PM)SouthernConfBoy Wrote:  Here are a couple of articles. One before the timeframe, one after:

https://www.deseret.com/1990/7/28/188734...ansion-br/

By Deseret News, Bill Glauber, The Baltimore Sun
The Atlantic Coast Conference took an important first step into the expansion race Wednesday.
Essentially the ACC agreed to formalize the informal, as league officials met and said they would explore expanding the league from its eight-school alignment."One of the things that is clear is that the conference feels pretty good about itself," ACC Commissioner Gene Corrigan said.
"We don't feel the need to rush any kind of expansion. But we're not at all closed to any expansion."
The pronouncement came at the conclusion of a five-hour meeting among ACC athletic directors and faculty representatives in Greensboro, N.C. The expansion campaign, which began with behind-the-scenes maneuvering following Penn State's entry into the Big Ten, is now official and declared in other conferences.
Wednesday, the league discussed the merits of 10 schools outside the conference. Among those mentioned as ACC expansion targets are Navy, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, South Carolina, Florida State, Miami, West Virginia, Boston College, Rutgers and Virginia Tech.
"We discussed south, north, east and west," Corrigan said.
Officials confined their debate to the possibility of including schools on a full-membership basis, closing off a move to recruit schools as football-only members.
That action could pose a threat to the Big East, a powerhouse in basketball but a non-entity in football.
Big East members Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Boston College have been searching for ways to place their football programs in a conference. West Virginia, South Carolina, Rutgers and Virginia Tech also have sought conference ties for their football teams.
Miami has courted the ACC in the past in an attempt to get its fledgling basketball program aligned with a powerful basketball conference.
Florida State is a prime target of the Southeastern Conference. Navy, by virtue of its strong athletic tradition, top academic reputation and national following, remains an attractive candidate for the ACC.
Television revenue from football is the driving force behind the expansion and realignment talks. The SEC and Metro Conference are also engaged in expansion talks that could affect the ACC.
"We came up with nothing really concrete this time," Corrigan said. "The most important thing is we didn't close off the idea of expansion. There are other things, nationally and regionally, that have to play themselves out. We'll be talking to people."
Corrigan joked that he would act as a "one-man search committee." As a former athletic director at Virginia and Notre Dame, and a key member on several National Collegiate Athletic Association committees, Corrigan is one of the most influential executives in college athletics.
Corrigan said that he would attempt to keep the search low key. Six of the eight ACC schools must approve new membership applications, and several ACC presidents have stated they will play a role in the expansion process.
"It's such a sensitive thing, right now," Corrigan said. "There really isn't a whole lot you can say."



Penn State in ACC instead of B1G? Former commish Gene Corrigan says it easily could've happened
• Updated: Jul. 23, 2013, 4:00 a.m.|
• Published: Jul. 23, 2013, 3:00 a.m.
•
•
•
•
Subscribers can gift articles to anyone
By
• David Jones | djones@pennlive.com
GeneCorrigan.jpg
Gene Corrigan was athletics director at Virginia (1971-81) and Notre Dame (1981-87) and commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference (1987-97).
(Univ. of Virginia)
Imagine Penn State in an Eastern all-sports conference including Syracuse and maybe even Pittsburgh. Not just any Eastern conference, not an ersatz Big East, but one with regular road trips to mild locales in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
It was a hair's breadth from happening. But at the 11th hour, after six months of haggling among its athletic directors and coaches, the Big Ten's presidents voted by the narrowest of possible margins to follow through on their stated intention and officially admit Penn State into its fold.
So ended in June 1990 a drama that very nearly extended PSU to Plan B in its quest to join a major conference. And what would that plan have been?
According to the man who was then commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference, he would have done everything in his considerable power to convince his league's university presidents that inviting Penn State was a no-brainer. Gene Corrigan says Penn State would likely have become a member of the ACC and would now have been so for over two decades.
I first heard this story from then-Penn State athletics director Jim Tarman back in 1994. He told me that Corrigan called him shortly after PSU's stunning invitation to the league became public on Dec. 14, 1989. It was an invitation fast-tracked by then-Illinois president Stan Ikenberry, a former Penn State vice provost, who was then chairman of the Big Ten presidents “Council of Ten.”
Only the league presidents knew; nobody else, including the Big Ten ADs, faculty reps and coaches, had been told. And when the ADs were gathered on a conference call and informed by their new commissioner, many were not amused.
Michigan's Bo Schembechler, then just retired as football coach and having assumed the AD's role, reacted with unbridled anger. He told me in 1994 that after a moment of stony silence he blurted into his phone to Delany for all to hear: “You gotta be s--tting me!”
Corrigan remembers being just as flabbergasted as everyone else, then remorseful that the ACC hadn't thought of inviting Penn State first. Tarman told me Corrigan called him the next day and lamented: “Why didn't you tell us you wanted in a major conference? We would've taken you in a heartbeat.”
“It's true,” said Corrigan, now 85 but as spry and sharp as when he was Notre Dame athletics director in the 1980s. His first reaction upon hearing the news?
“Aww, s---!,” replied Corrigan, using the barnyard expletive with a laugh. “What were we thinking of? What were we not thinking of?
“I remember having a meeting with [associate commissioner] Tom Mickle and some of our people and I said, 'We have been sitting here sound asleep while this thing happened.' And that's when we started thinking about getting Florida State.
“I remember saying, 'It's time. This is something that's got to be done. This is a new time in the world. Let's not sit here and regret later on because we didn't do anything.' I drove our people absolutely crazy. They used to get so mad at me because I kept bringing up expansion.
“But that was a great move that the Big Ten made. It was fabulous. I was just blown over. And I congratulated the Big Ten because I thought that was a hell of a move by them.”
But what if the 7-3 vote of the Big Ten presidents had gone 6-4 and the conference had been forced to renege on its offer? Would the ACC have pounced? Corrigan said he would have made it his mission:
“I would've liked it very much. Our people would have. Because we had a lot of respect for them. They were a good solid program. There were no bad stories about them out there.
“I would've. Now, I don't know if our [presidents] would have bought it. But I would have had no reservations at all.
“I honestly thought that it would've been a lot easier in a lot of ways for Penn State to come to the ACC. It would have been a whole lot easier travel-wise for them to be part of us.”
Had PSU become an ACC rather than Big Ten member in 1990, the potential ramifications by this time are staggering. Florida State likely would have still come aboard in 1991 to make the ACC 10 schools. But what about the 2003 expansion that added Virginia Tech, Miami and Boston College from the Big East? Would the ACC have bothered with BC with Penn State already in the fold and surely dominating the Northeast college football market? And is there any conceivable way Maryland leaves the ACC last year with neighbor PSU already in?
Moreover, does the Big Ten have the ratings boom-pow to launch the Big Ten Network with such audacity and demand the rates from cable providers it has? Does it make the money it has without Penn State? Does Nebraska jump from the Big 12 without that guaranteed annual revenue?
Of course, Penn State would not undo the move now. Neither would anyone in the Big Ten.
PSU has immeasurably benefitted from research resources and grant opportunities provided by Big Ten membership. It is a much better academic institution for having been a member 23 years.
The conference has very measurably benefitted from Penn State's massive alumni base, fan support and television ratings for football. They are part and parcel of the launch six years ago of the BTN.
That doesn't make the game of “What If...” any less intriguing. And it all could have been a very different story but for a single president's vote a generation ago.
The 2013 Big Ten football season will mark the 20th year that Penn State has competed in the storied conference. Find the rest of our Penn State: 20 years in the Big Ten series below.
• Penn State in ACC instead of B1G? Former commish Gene Corrigan says it easily could've happened
• Penn State and the Big Ten: A look back at the Nittany Lions' first season (1993)
• Sizing up the highs and lows of Penn State's first season in the Big Ten
• Penn State Numerology 101: A look at Penn State's inaugural Big Ten season

Thank you for posting this. It has long been my belief that not adding Penn State back then was THE misstep for the ACC. Penn State in the ACC changes everything afterwards.

I think the reason this happened is because Bob James died suddenly. James was ACC commissioner and was a MD boy.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/s...50f876c2d/

JAMES MOURNED BY ACC
FUNERAL THURSDAY
By Associated Press
May 12, 1987 at 8:00 p.m. EDT

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DURHAM, N.C., MAY 12 -- Bob James, commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference for the past 16 years, helped foster prosperity and camaraderie among conference schools, officials said following his death Monday at age 66.

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James died shortly after 6 p.m. at Duke University Medical Center. Marvin (Skeeter) Francis, an assistant commissioner, said James had learned about four weeks ago that he was suffering from liver and lung cancer.

He entered a Greensboro hospital on April 25, returned home for a few days, then was admitted to Duke on May 3, Francis said.

Funeral services for James were scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church in Greensboro, with burial at Westminster Gardens in Greensboro.

"Maybe the greatest gift he gave to the conference was to set a tone that really nourished relationships between institutions and individuals," said John Swofford, athletic director at North Carolina.

"What we do is very competitive, and I think he helped develop a situation where our schools get along extremely well."

James, who succeeded the late James H. Weaver, was the ACC's second commissioner. When James joined the ACC, the conference conducted championships in 13 sports for male students only. Now, it sponsors championships in 21 sports, 12 for men and nine for women.

During his tenure as commissioner, the ACC won three national championships in basketball, one in football and others in nonrevenue sports.

"You meet a lot of very impressive people in higher athletic administration when you work at a school like Duke, but I don't know of anyone quite like Bob James," Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski said.


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"You respect him because he's one heck of a commissioner, but he could relate to you just like one of the boys. He'd make you feel comfortable and confident at the same time -- confidence from his presence as an excellent administrator and comfortable because he's such a good guy. We'll really miss him."

William Friday, president emeritus of the University of North Carolina, called James' death "an enormous loss. He was a real leader in intercollegiate athletics.

"Bob James was a man who set principles and then followed them diligently, who did his best to keep intercollegiate athletics within the posture they should be."

Dr. Richard Mochrie, the faculty representative at N.C. State and the ACC president, said James had informed league officials that he would serve one more year as commissioner. "At our meeting in Myrtle Beach {S.C.} next week, we planned to advertise for applicants and we hoped to bring someone in next spring and let Bob work with them until his retirement July 1," Mochrie said.

Mochrie and Francis told the Raleigh News & Observer that a probable choice as interim commissioner would be Jack Fuzak, an assistant ACC commissioner.

James was active in the NCAA and also served a term as a member of the House of Delegates of the United States Olympic Committee.

James presided over the expansion of the ACC's basketball television package into one of the richest in college athletics. Under his guidance, the conference entered into its first regional football TV format three years ago.

James was a varsity letterman in three sports at Maryland, then became civilian athletic director at the Air Force Academy.

In 1965, he became comissioner of the seven-member Mid-American Conference. He served in that capacity for nearly seven years, then moved to the ACC.

(03-02-2024 12:14 PM)ENCterrapin Wrote:  

(03-01-2024 11:20 PM)SouthernConfBoy Wrote:  Here are a couple of articles. One before the timeframe, one after:

https://www.deseret.com/1990/7/28/188734...ansion-br/

By Deseret News, Bill Glauber, The Baltimore Sun
The Atlantic Coast Conference took an important first step into the expansion race Wednesday.
Essentially the ACC agreed to formalize the informal, as league officials met and said they would explore expanding the league from its eight-school alignment."One of the things that is clear is that the conference feels pretty good about itself," ACC Commissioner Gene Corrigan said.
"We don't feel the need to rush any kind of expansion. But we're not at all closed to any expansion."
The pronouncement came at the conclusion of a five-hour meeting among ACC athletic directors and faculty representatives in Greensboro, N.C. The expansion campaign, which began with behind-the-scenes maneuvering following Penn State's entry into the Big Ten, is now official and declared in other conferences.
Wednesday, the league discussed the merits of 10 schools outside the conference. Among those mentioned as ACC expansion targets are Navy, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, South Carolina, Florida State, Miami, West Virginia, Boston College, Rutgers and Virginia Tech.
"We discussed south, north, east and west," Corrigan said.
Officials confined their debate to the possibility of including schools on a full-membership basis, closing off a move to recruit schools as football-only members.
That action could pose a threat to the Big East, a powerhouse in basketball but a non-entity in football.
Big East members Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Boston College have been searching for ways to place their football programs in a conference. West Virginia, South Carolina, Rutgers and Virginia Tech also have sought conference ties for their football teams.
Miami has courted the ACC in the past in an attempt to get its fledgling basketball program aligned with a powerful basketball conference.
Florida State is a prime target of the Southeastern Conference. Navy, by virtue of its strong athletic tradition, top academic reputation and national following, remains an attractive candidate for the ACC.
Television revenue from football is the driving force behind the expansion and realignment talks. The SEC and Metro Conference are also engaged in expansion talks that could affect the ACC.
"We came up with nothing really concrete this time," Corrigan said. "The most important thing is we didn't close off the idea of expansion. There are other things, nationally and regionally, that have to play themselves out. We'll be talking to people."
Corrigan joked that he would act as a "one-man search committee." As a former athletic director at Virginia and Notre Dame, and a key member on several National Collegiate Athletic Association committees, Corrigan is one of the most influential executives in college athletics.
Corrigan said that he would attempt to keep the search low key. Six of the eight ACC schools must approve new membership applications, and several ACC presidents have stated they will play a role in the expansion process.
"It's such a sensitive thing, right now," Corrigan said. "There really isn't a whole lot you can say."



Penn State in ACC instead of B1G? Former commish Gene Corrigan says it easily could've happened
• Updated: Jul. 23, 2013, 4:00 a.m.|
• Published: Jul. 23, 2013, 3:00 a.m.
•
•
•
•
Subscribers can gift articles to anyone
By
• David Jones | djones@pennlive.com
GeneCorrigan.jpg
Gene Corrigan was athletics director at Virginia (1971-81) and Notre Dame (1981-87) and commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference (1987-97).
(Univ. of Virginia)
Imagine Penn State in an Eastern all-sports conference including Syracuse and maybe even Pittsburgh. Not just any Eastern conference, not an ersatz Big East, but one with regular road trips to mild locales in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
It was a hair's breadth from happening. But at the 11th hour, after six months of haggling among its athletic directors and coaches, the Big Ten's presidents voted by the narrowest of possible margins to follow through on their stated intention and officially admit Penn State into its fold.
So ended in June 1990 a drama that very nearly extended PSU to Plan B in its quest to join a major conference. And what would that plan have been?
According to the man who was then commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference, he would have done everything in his considerable power to convince his league's university presidents that inviting Penn State was a no-brainer. Gene Corrigan says Penn State would likely have become a member of the ACC and would now have been so for over two decades.
I first heard this story from then-Penn State athletics director Jim Tarman back in 1994. He told me that Corrigan called him shortly after PSU's stunning invitation to the league became public on Dec. 14, 1989. It was an invitation fast-tracked by then-Illinois president Stan Ikenberry, a former Penn State vice provost, who was then chairman of the Big Ten presidents “Council of Ten.”
Only the league presidents knew; nobody else, including the Big Ten ADs, faculty reps and coaches, had been told. And when the ADs were gathered on a conference call and informed by their new commissioner, many were not amused.
Michigan's Bo Schembechler, then just retired as football coach and having assumed the AD's role, reacted with unbridled anger. He told me in 1994 that after a moment of stony silence he blurted into his phone to Delany for all to hear: “You gotta be s--tting me!”
Corrigan remembers being just as flabbergasted as everyone else, then remorseful that the ACC hadn't thought of inviting Penn State first. Tarman told me Corrigan called him the next day and lamented: “Why didn't you tell us you wanted in a major conference? We would've taken you in a heartbeat.”
“It's true,” said Corrigan, now 85 but as spry and sharp as when he was Notre Dame athletics director in the 1980s. His first reaction upon hearing the news?
“Aww, s---!,” replied Corrigan, using the barnyard expletive with a laugh. “What were we thinking of? What were we not thinking of?
“I remember having a meeting with [associate commissioner] Tom Mickle and some of our people and I said, 'We have been sitting here sound asleep while this thing happened.' And that's when we started thinking about getting Florida State.
“I remember saying, 'It's time. This is something that's got to be done. This is a new time in the world. Let's not sit here and regret later on because we didn't do anything.' I drove our people absolutely crazy. They used to get so mad at me because I kept bringing up expansion.
“But that was a great move that the Big Ten made. It was fabulous. I was just blown over. And I congratulated the Big Ten because I thought that was a hell of a move by them.”
But what if the 7-3 vote of the Big Ten presidents had gone 6-4 and the conference had been forced to renege on its offer? Would the ACC have pounced? Corrigan said he would have made it his mission:
“I would've liked it very much. Our people would have. Because we had a lot of respect for them. They were a good solid program. There were no bad stories about them out there.
“I would've. Now, I don't know if our [presidents] would have bought it. But I would have had no reservations at all.
“I honestly thought that it would've been a lot easier in a lot of ways for Penn State to come to the ACC. It would have been a whole lot easier travel-wise for them to be part of us.”
Had PSU become an ACC rather than Big Ten member in 1990, the potential ramifications by this time are staggering. Florida State likely would have still come aboard in 1991 to make the ACC 10 schools. But what about the 2003 expansion that added Virginia Tech, Miami and Boston College from the Big East? Would the ACC have bothered with BC with Penn State already in the fold and surely dominating the Northeast college football market? And is there any conceivable way Maryland leaves the ACC last year with neighbor PSU already in?
Moreover, does the Big Ten have the ratings boom-pow to launch the Big Ten Network with such audacity and demand the rates from cable providers it has? Does it make the money it has without Penn State? Does Nebraska jump from the Big 12 without that guaranteed annual revenue?
Of course, Penn State would not undo the move now. Neither would anyone in the Big Ten.
PSU has immeasurably benefitted from research resources and grant opportunities provided by Big Ten membership. It is a much better academic institution for having been a member 23 years.
The conference has very measurably benefitted from Penn State's massive alumni base, fan support and television ratings for football. They are part and parcel of the launch six years ago of the BTN.
That doesn't make the game of “What If...” any less intriguing. And it all could have been a very different story but for a single president's vote a generation ago.
The 2013 Big Ten football season will mark the 20th year that Penn State has competed in the storied conference. Find the rest of our Penn State: 20 years in the Big Ten series below.
• Penn State in ACC instead of B1G? Former commish Gene Corrigan says it easily could've happened
• Penn State and the Big Ten: A look back at the Nittany Lions' first season (1993)
• Sizing up the highs and lows of Penn State's first season in the Big Ten
• Penn State Numerology 101: A look at Penn State's inaugural Big Ten season

Thank you for posting this. It has long been my belief that not adding Penn State back then was THE misstep for the ACC. Penn State in the ACC changes everything afterwards.

I'm going to tell you something quite definitive. Unless the Big Ten turned Penn State down, which it almost did, the ACC has zero realistic chance at Penn State in the 80s. Zero. And it likely had little chance even in that hypothetical. It had a better, albeit very brief, window during the child rape scandal when the fan base was infuriated that the Big Ten was sanctioning them and discussing kicking them out. The UMD and Rutgers invite put an end to that.

As a MD man James could keep U of MD happy despite Duke and UNC pissing them off from time to time. He would have been the prime boundary spanner with Penn State. Bill Cobey, the UNC AD, who was the son of a Maryland Athletic Director, had exited athletics at that time to be a political candidate in NC. James death was sudden during a period of time when folks did not communicate every other day. He took every contact he had with him and Gene Corrigan arrived on the scene about 18 months too late to change the direction. Then poof PSU was gone.

WVU wouid have been an academic exception, just like UL was. If Pitt, SU, BC, UM, VT can share a conference with them, then I see no reason to black ball them. The ACC is an athletic conference, not a country club.

(03-02-2024 12:27 PM)CrazyPaco Wrote:  

(03-02-2024 12:14 PM)ENCterrapin Wrote:  

(03-01-2024 11:20 PM)SouthernConfBoy Wrote:  Here are a couple of articles. One before the timeframe, one after:

https://www.deseret.com/1990/7/28/188734...ansion-br/

By Deseret News, Bill Glauber, The Baltimore Sun
The Atlantic Coast Conference took an important first step into the expansion race Wednesday.
Essentially the ACC agreed to formalize the informal, as league officials met and said they would explore expanding the league from its eight-school alignment."One of the things that is clear is that the conference feels pretty good about itself," ACC Commissioner Gene Corrigan said.
"We don't feel the need to rush any kind of expansion. But we're not at all closed to any expansion."
The pronouncement came at the conclusion of a five-hour meeting among ACC athletic directors and faculty representatives in Greensboro, N.C. The expansion campaign, which began with behind-the-scenes maneuvering following Penn State's entry into the Big Ten, is now official and declared in other conferences.
Wednesday, the league discussed the merits of 10 schools outside the conference. Among those mentioned as ACC expansion targets are Navy, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, South Carolina, Florida State, Miami, West Virginia, Boston College, Rutgers and Virginia Tech.
"We discussed south, north, east and west," Corrigan said.
Officials confined their debate to the possibility of including schools on a full-membership basis, closing off a move to recruit schools as football-only members.
That action could pose a threat to the Big East, a powerhouse in basketball but a non-entity in football.
Big East members Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Boston College have been searching for ways to place their football programs in a conference. West Virginia, South Carolina, Rutgers and Virginia Tech also have sought conference ties for their football teams.
Miami has courted the ACC in the past in an attempt to get its fledgling basketball program aligned with a powerful basketball conference.
Florida State is a prime target of the Southeastern Conference. Navy, by virtue of its strong athletic tradition, top academic reputation and national following, remains an attractive candidate for the ACC.
Television revenue from football is the driving force behind the expansion and realignment talks. The SEC and Metro Conference are also engaged in expansion talks that could affect the ACC.
"We came up with nothing really concrete this time," Corrigan said. "The most important thing is we didn't close off the idea of expansion. There are other things, nationally and regionally, that have to play themselves out. We'll be talking to people."
Corrigan joked that he would act as a "one-man search committee." As a former athletic director at Virginia and Notre Dame, and a key member on several National Collegiate Athletic Association committees, Corrigan is one of the most influential executives in college athletics.
Corrigan said that he would attempt to keep the search low key. Six of the eight ACC schools must approve new membership applications, and several ACC presidents have stated they will play a role in the expansion process.
"It's such a sensitive thing, right now," Corrigan said. "There really isn't a whole lot you can say."



Penn State in ACC instead of B1G? Former commish Gene Corrigan says it easily could've happened
• Updated: Jul. 23, 2013, 4:00 a.m.|
• Published: Jul. 23, 2013, 3:00 a.m.
•
•
•
•
Subscribers can gift articles to anyone
By
• David Jones | djones@pennlive.com
GeneCorrigan.jpg
Gene Corrigan was athletics director at Virginia (1971-81) and Notre Dame (1981-87) and commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference (1987-97).
(Univ. of Virginia)
Imagine Penn State in an Eastern all-sports conference including Syracuse and maybe even Pittsburgh. Not just any Eastern conference, not an ersatz Big East, but one with regular road trips to mild locales in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
It was a hair's breadth from happening. But at the 11th hour, after six months of haggling among its athletic directors and coaches, the Big Ten's presidents voted by the narrowest of possible margins to follow through on their stated intention and officially admit Penn State into its fold.
So ended in June 1990 a drama that very nearly extended PSU to Plan B in its quest to join a major conference. And what would that plan have been?
According to the man who was then commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference, he would have done everything in his considerable power to convince his league's university presidents that inviting Penn State was a no-brainer. Gene Corrigan says Penn State would likely have become a member of the ACC and would now have been so for over two decades.
I first heard this story from then-Penn State athletics director Jim Tarman back in 1994. He told me that Corrigan called him shortly after PSU's stunning invitation to the league became public on Dec. 14, 1989. It was an invitation fast-tracked by then-Illinois president Stan Ikenberry, a former Penn State vice provost, who was then chairman of the Big Ten presidents “Council of Ten.”
Only the league presidents knew; nobody else, including the Big Ten ADs, faculty reps and coaches, had been told. And when the ADs were gathered on a conference call and informed by their new commissioner, many were not amused.
Michigan's Bo Schembechler, then just retired as football coach and having assumed the AD's role, reacted with unbridled anger. He told me in 1994 that after a moment of stony silence he blurted into his phone to Delany for all to hear: “You gotta be s--tting me!”
Corrigan remembers being just as flabbergasted as everyone else, then remorseful that the ACC hadn't thought of inviting Penn State first. Tarman told me Corrigan called him the next day and lamented: “Why didn't you tell us you wanted in a major conference? We would've taken you in a heartbeat.”
“It's true,” said Corrigan, now 85 but as spry and sharp as when he was Notre Dame athletics director in the 1980s. His first reaction upon hearing the news?
“Aww, s---!,” replied Corrigan, using the barnyard expletive with a laugh. “What were we thinking of? What were we not thinking of?
“I remember having a meeting with [associate commissioner] Tom Mickle and some of our people and I said, 'We have been sitting here sound asleep while this thing happened.' And that's when we started thinking about getting Florida State.
“I remember saying, 'It's time. This is something that's got to be done. This is a new time in the world. Let's not sit here and regret later on because we didn't do anything.' I drove our people absolutely crazy. They used to get so mad at me because I kept bringing up expansion.
“But that was a great move that the Big Ten made. It was fabulous. I was just blown over. And I congratulated the Big Ten because I thought that was a hell of a move by them.”
But what if the 7-3 vote of the Big Ten presidents had gone 6-4 and the conference had been forced to renege on its offer? Would the ACC have pounced? Corrigan said he would have made it his mission:
“I would've liked it very much. Our people would have. Because we had a lot of respect for them. They were a good solid program. There were no bad stories about them out there.
“I would've. Now, I don't know if our [presidents] would have bought it. But I would have had no reservations at all.
“I honestly thought that it would've been a lot easier in a lot of ways for Penn State to come to the ACC. It would have been a whole lot easier travel-wise for them to be part of us.”
Had PSU become an ACC rather than Big Ten member in 1990, the potential ramifications by this time are staggering. Florida State likely would have still come aboard in 1991 to make the ACC 10 schools. But what about the 2003 expansion that added Virginia Tech, Miami and Boston College from the Big East? Would the ACC have bothered with BC with Penn State already in the fold and surely dominating the Northeast college football market? And is there any conceivable way Maryland leaves the ACC last year with neighbor PSU already in?
Moreover, does the Big Ten have the ratings boom-pow to launch the Big Ten Network with such audacity and demand the rates from cable providers it has? Does it make the money it has without Penn State? Does Nebraska jump from the Big 12 without that guaranteed annual revenue?
Of course, Penn State would not undo the move now. Neither would anyone in the Big Ten.
PSU has immeasurably benefitted from research resources and grant opportunities provided by Big Ten membership. It is a much better academic institution for having been a member 23 years.
The conference has very measurably benefitted from Penn State's massive alumni base, fan support and television ratings for football. They are part and parcel of the launch six years ago of the BTN.
That doesn't make the game of “What If...” any less intriguing. And it all could have been a very different story but for a single president's vote a generation ago.
The 2013 Big Ten football season will mark the 20th year that Penn State has competed in the storied conference. Find the rest of our Penn State: 20 years in the Big Ten series below.
• Penn State in ACC instead of B1G? Former commish Gene Corrigan says it easily could've happened
• Penn State and the Big Ten: A look back at the Nittany Lions' first season (1993)
• Sizing up the highs and lows of Penn State's first season in the Big Ten
• Penn State Numerology 101: A look at Penn State's inaugural Big Ten season

Thank you for posting this. It has long been my belief that not adding Penn State back then was THE misstep for the ACC. Penn State in the ACC changes everything afterwards.

I'm going to tell you something quite definitive. Unless the Big Ten turned Penn State down, which it almost did, the ACC has zero realistic chance at Penn State in the 80s. Zero. And it likely had little chance even in that hypothetical. It has a better, albeit very brief, window during the child rape scandal when the fan base was infuriated that the Big Ten was sanctioning them and discussing kicking them out. The UMD and Rutgers invite put an end to that.

During the scandal, I was among the people that talked themselves into thinking that was the best chance to grab Penn State. Up until the literal moment that news broke that UMD was in talks with the B1G on sportscenter. I remember that night vividly. Some say part of my jaw is still on the floor. Oh memory lane, this is why I stay away from the ACC board, it's been a decade and I'm still not over it. lol

(03-02-2024 12:46 PM)ENCterrapin Wrote:  

(03-02-2024 12:27 PM)CrazyPaco Wrote:  

(03-02-2024 12:14 PM)ENCterrapin Wrote:  

(03-01-2024 11:20 PM)SouthernConfBoy Wrote:  Here are a couple of articles. One before the timeframe, one after:

https://www.deseret.com/1990/7/28/188734...ansion-br/

By Deseret News, Bill Glauber, The Baltimore Sun
The Atlantic Coast Conference took an important first step into the expansion race Wednesday.
Essentially the ACC agreed to formalize the informal, as league officials met and said they would explore expanding the league from its eight-school alignment."One of the things that is clear is that the conference feels pretty good about itself," ACC Commissioner Gene Corrigan said.
"We don't feel the need to rush any kind of expansion. But we're not at all closed to any expansion."
The pronouncement came at the conclusion of a five-hour meeting among ACC athletic directors and faculty representatives in Greensboro, N.C. The expansion campaign, which began with behind-the-scenes maneuvering following Penn State's entry into the Big Ten, is now official and declared in other conferences.
Wednesday, the league discussed the merits of 10 schools outside the conference. Among those mentioned as ACC expansion targets are Navy, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, South Carolina, Florida State, Miami, West Virginia, Boston College, Rutgers and Virginia Tech.
"We discussed south, north, east and west," Corrigan said.
Officials confined their debate to the possibility of including schools on a full-membership basis, closing off a move to recruit schools as football-only members.
That action could pose a threat to the Big East, a powerhouse in basketball but a non-entity in football.
Big East members Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Boston College have been searching for ways to place their football programs in a conference. West Virginia, South Carolina, Rutgers and Virginia Tech also have sought conference ties for their football teams.
Miami has courted the ACC in the past in an attempt to get its fledgling basketball program aligned with a powerful basketball conference.
Florida State is a prime target of the Southeastern Conference. Navy, by virtue of its strong athletic tradition, top academic reputation and national following, remains an attractive candidate for the ACC.
Television revenue from football is the driving force behind the expansion and realignment talks. The SEC and Metro Conference are also engaged in expansion talks that could affect the ACC.
"We came up with nothing really concrete this time," Corrigan said. "The most important thing is we didn't close off the idea of expansion. There are other things, nationally and regionally, that have to play themselves out. We'll be talking to people."
Corrigan joked that he would act as a "one-man search committee." As a former athletic director at Virginia and Notre Dame, and a key member on several National Collegiate Athletic Association committees, Corrigan is one of the most influential executives in college athletics.
Corrigan said that he would attempt to keep the search low key. Six of the eight ACC schools must approve new membership applications, and several ACC presidents have stated they will play a role in the expansion process.
"It's such a sensitive thing, right now," Corrigan said. "There really isn't a whole lot you can say."



Penn State in ACC instead of B1G? Former commish Gene Corrigan says it easily could've happened
• Updated: Jul. 23, 2013, 4:00 a.m.|
• Published: Jul. 23, 2013, 3:00 a.m.
•
•
•
•
Subscribers can gift articles to anyone
By
• David Jones | djones@pennlive.com
GeneCorrigan.jpg
Gene Corrigan was athletics director at Virginia (1971-81) and Notre Dame (1981-87) and commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference (1987-97).
(Univ. of Virginia)
Imagine Penn State in an Eastern all-sports conference including Syracuse and maybe even Pittsburgh. Not just any Eastern conference, not an ersatz Big East, but one with regular road trips to mild locales in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
It was a hair's breadth from happening. But at the 11th hour, after six months of haggling among its athletic directors and coaches, the Big Ten's presidents voted by the narrowest of possible margins to follow through on their stated intention and officially admit Penn State into its fold.
So ended in June 1990 a drama that very nearly extended PSU to Plan B in its quest to join a major conference. And what would that plan have been?
According to the man who was then commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference, he would have done everything in his considerable power to convince his league's university presidents that inviting Penn State was a no-brainer. Gene Corrigan says Penn State would likely have become a member of the ACC and would now have been so for over two decades.
I first heard this story from then-Penn State athletics director Jim Tarman back in 1994. He told me that Corrigan called him shortly after PSU's stunning invitation to the league became public on Dec. 14, 1989. It was an invitation fast-tracked by then-Illinois president Stan Ikenberry, a former Penn State vice provost, who was then chairman of the Big Ten presidents “Council of Ten.”
Only the league presidents knew; nobody else, including the Big Ten ADs, faculty reps and coaches, had been told. And when the ADs were gathered on a conference call and informed by their new commissioner, many were not amused.
Michigan's Bo Schembechler, then just retired as football coach and having assumed the AD's role, reacted with unbridled anger. He told me in 1994 that after a moment of stony silence he blurted into his phone to Delany for all to hear: “You gotta be s--tting me!”
Corrigan remembers being just as flabbergasted as everyone else, then remorseful that the ACC hadn't thought of inviting Penn State first. Tarman told me Corrigan called him the next day and lamented: “Why didn't you tell us you wanted in a major conference? We would've taken you in a heartbeat.”
“It's true,” said Corrigan, now 85 but as spry and sharp as when he was Notre Dame athletics director in the 1980s. His first reaction upon hearing the news?
“Aww, s---!,” replied Corrigan, using the barnyard expletive with a laugh. “What were we thinking of? What were we not thinking of?
“I remember having a meeting with [associate commissioner] Tom Mickle and some of our people and I said, 'We have been sitting here sound asleep while this thing happened.' And that's when we started thinking about getting Florida State.
“I remember saying, 'It's time. This is something that's got to be done. This is a new time in the world. Let's not sit here and regret later on because we didn't do anything.' I drove our people absolutely crazy. They used to get so mad at me because I kept bringing up expansion.
“But that was a great move that the Big Ten made. It was fabulous. I was just blown over. And I congratulated the Big Ten because I thought that was a hell of a move by them.”
But what if the 7-3 vote of the Big Ten presidents had gone 6-4 and the conference had been forced to renege on its offer? Would the ACC have pounced? Corrigan said he would have made it his mission:
“I would've liked it very much. Our people would have. Because we had a lot of respect for them. They were a good solid program. There were no bad stories about them out there.
“I would've. Now, I don't know if our [presidents] would have bought it. But I would have had no reservations at all.
“I honestly thought that it would've been a lot easier in a lot of ways for Penn State to come to the ACC. It would have been a whole lot easier travel-wise for them to be part of us.”
Had PSU become an ACC rather than Big Ten member in 1990, the potential ramifications by this time are staggering. Florida State likely would have still come aboard in 1991 to make the ACC 10 schools. But what about the 2003 expansion that added Virginia Tech, Miami and Boston College from the Big East? Would the ACC have bothered with BC with Penn State already in the fold and surely dominating the Northeast college football market? And is there any conceivable way Maryland leaves the ACC last year with neighbor PSU already in?
Moreover, does the Big Ten have the ratings boom-pow to launch the Big Ten Network with such audacity and demand the rates from cable providers it has? Does it make the money it has without Penn State? Does Nebraska jump from the Big 12 without that guaranteed annual revenue?
Of course, Penn State would not undo the move now. Neither would anyone in the Big Ten.
PSU has immeasurably benefitted from research resources and grant opportunities provided by Big Ten membership. It is a much better academic institution for having been a member 23 years.
The conference has very measurably benefitted from Penn State's massive alumni base, fan support and television ratings for football. They are part and parcel of the launch six years ago of the BTN.
That doesn't make the game of “What If...” any less intriguing. And it all could have been a very different story but for a single president's vote a generation ago.
The 2013 Big Ten football season will mark the 20th year that Penn State has competed in the storied conference. Find the rest of our Penn State: 20 years in the Big Ten series below.
• Penn State in ACC instead of B1G? Former commish Gene Corrigan says it easily could've happened
• Penn State and the Big Ten: A look back at the Nittany Lions' first season (1993)
• Sizing up the highs and lows of Penn State's first season in the Big Ten
• Penn State Numerology 101: A look at Penn State's inaugural Big Ten season

Thank you for posting this. It has long been my belief that not adding Penn State back then was THE misstep for the ACC. Penn State in the ACC changes everything afterwards.

I'm going to tell you something quite definitive. Unless the Big Ten turned Penn State down, which it almost did, the ACC has zero realistic chance at Penn State in the 80s. Zero. And it likely had little chance even in that hypothetical. It has a better, albeit very brief, window during the child rape scandal when the fan base was infuriated that the Big Ten was sanctioning them and discussing kicking them out. The UMD and Rutgers invite put an end to that.

During the scandal, I was among the people that talked themselves into thinking that was the best chance to grab Penn State. Up until the literal moment that news broke that UMD was in talks with the B1G on sportscenter. I remember that night vividly. Some say part of my jaw is still on the floor. Oh memory lane, this is why I stay away from the ACC board lol

I can tell you the cult of personality around Paterno is very, very strong; and the audacity of the Big Ten piling on sanctions, or even to criticize the university, had a not unsizeable portion of the institutional influencers ready to bolt, but for sure a lot of the run of the mill fans were infuriated. They had previously felt like a red-headed step child...were suffering from a good dose of Terrapin-syndrome...and had repeatedly been refused pleas for eastern expansion of the conference. So that was the last straw for many. Make no mistake, pulling UMD was a defensive move as much as it was for BTN $, and it was publicly stated as such by Jim Delany.

There was anger everywhere at PSU over the perceived injustice done to Paterno and the school (still is...as there is currently a movement in their BOT to name the field at Beaver Stadium after Paterno to right these terrible wrongs). A true persecution syndrome of the most ridiculous and conspiratorial nature. It was also the beginning of the end for the NCAA, as the lawsuits and threats of lawsuits from constituencies within its fan base showed how weak the NCAA was when it ended up completely backing down.

For sure, if the B10 had kicked them out (and it was discussed) or been maybe a little more harsh (say a bowl ban), they could very likely be in the ACC right now, not that they may not have wrecked it by now. Think Florida State in hubris, but with characteristics like a cult. There really isn't another school like it to be honest, and that is a good thing.

(03-02-2024 01:05 PM)CrazyPaco Wrote:  I can tell you the cult of personality around Paterno is very, very strong; and the audacity of the Big Ten piling on sanctions, or even to criticize the university, had a not unsizeable portion of the institutional influencers ready to bolt, but for sure a lot of the run of the mill fans were infuriated. They had previously felt like a red-headed step child...were suffering from a good dose of Terrapin-syndrome...and had repeatedly been refused pleas for eastern expansion of the conference. So that was the last straw for many. Make no mistake, pulling UMD was a defensive move as much as it was for BTN $, and it was publicly stated as such by Jim Delany.

There was anger everywhere at PSU over the perceived injustice done to Paterno and the school (still is...as there is currently a movement in their BOT to name the field at Beaver Stadium after Paterno to right these terrible wrongs). A true persecution syndrome of the most ridiculous and conspiratorial nature. It was also the beginning of the end for the NCAA, as the lawsuits and threats of lawsuits from constituencies within its fan base showed how weak the NCAA was when it ended up completely backing down.

For sure, if the B10 had kicked them out (and it was discussed) or been maybe a little more harsh (say a bowl ban), they could very likely be in the ACC right now, not that they may not have wrecked it by now. Think Florida State in hubris, but with characteristics like a cult. There really isn't another school like it to be honest, and that is a good thing.

I have two cousins that went the PSU route, your description is fairly accurate. As for the bolded..

(03-02-2024 12:27 PM)CrazyPaco Wrote:  

(03-02-2024 12:14 PM)ENCterrapin Wrote:  

(03-01-2024 11:20 PM)SouthernConfBoy Wrote:  Here are a couple of articles. One before the timeframe, one after:

https://www.deseret.com/1990/7/28/188734...ansion-br/

By Deseret News, Bill Glauber, The Baltimore Sun
The Atlantic Coast Conference took an important first step into the expansion race Wednesday.
Essentially the ACC agreed to formalize the informal, as league officials met and said they would explore expanding the league from its eight-school alignment."One of the things that is clear is that the conference feels pretty good about itself," ACC Commissioner Gene Corrigan said.
"We don't feel the need to rush any kind of expansion. But we're not at all closed to any expansion."
The pronouncement came at the conclusion of a five-hour meeting among ACC athletic directors and faculty representatives in Greensboro, N.C. The expansion campaign, which began with behind-the-scenes maneuvering following Penn State's entry into the Big Ten, is now official and declared in other conferences.
Wednesday, the league discussed the merits of 10 schools outside the conference. Among those mentioned as ACC expansion targets are Navy, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, South Carolina, Florida State, Miami, West Virginia, Boston College, Rutgers and Virginia Tech.
"We discussed south, north, east and west," Corrigan said.
Officials confined their debate to the possibility of including schools on a full-membership basis, closing off a move to recruit schools as football-only members.
That action could pose a threat to the Big East, a powerhouse in basketball but a non-entity in football.
Big East members Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Boston College have been searching for ways to place their football programs in a conference. West Virginia, South Carolina, Rutgers and Virginia Tech also have sought conference ties for their football teams.
Miami has courted the ACC in the past in an attempt to get its fledgling basketball program aligned with a powerful basketball conference.
Florida State is a prime target of the Southeastern Conference. Navy, by virtue of its strong athletic tradition, top academic reputation and national following, remains an attractive candidate for the ACC.
Television revenue from football is the driving force behind the expansion and realignment talks. The SEC and Metro Conference are also engaged in expansion talks that could affect the ACC.
"We came up with nothing really concrete this time," Corrigan said. "The most important thing is we didn't close off the idea of expansion. There are other things, nationally and regionally, that have to play themselves out. We'll be talking to people."
Corrigan joked that he would act as a "one-man search committee." As a former athletic director at Virginia and Notre Dame, and a key member on several National Collegiate Athletic Association committees, Corrigan is one of the most influential executives in college athletics.
Corrigan said that he would attempt to keep the search low key. Six of the eight ACC schools must approve new membership applications, and several ACC presidents have stated they will play a role in the expansion process.
"It's such a sensitive thing, right now," Corrigan said. "There really isn't a whole lot you can say."



Penn State in ACC instead of B1G? Former commish Gene Corrigan says it easily could've happened
• Updated: Jul. 23, 2013, 4:00 a.m.|
• Published: Jul. 23, 2013, 3:00 a.m.
•
•
•
•
Subscribers can gift articles to anyone
By
• David Jones | djones@pennlive.com
GeneCorrigan.jpg
Gene Corrigan was athletics director at Virginia (1971-81) and Notre Dame (1981-87) and commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference (1987-97).
(Univ. of Virginia)
Imagine Penn State in an Eastern all-sports conference including Syracuse and maybe even Pittsburgh. Not just any Eastern conference, not an ersatz Big East, but one with regular road trips to mild locales in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
It was a hair's breadth from happening. But at the 11th hour, after six months of haggling among its athletic directors and coaches, the Big Ten's presidents voted by the narrowest of possible margins to follow through on their stated intention and officially admit Penn State into its fold.
So ended in June 1990 a drama that very nearly extended PSU to Plan B in its quest to join a major conference. And what would that plan have been?
According to the man who was then commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference, he would have done everything in his considerable power to convince his league's university presidents that inviting Penn State was a no-brainer. Gene Corrigan says Penn State would likely have become a member of the ACC and would now have been so for over two decades.
I first heard this story from then-Penn State athletics director Jim Tarman back in 1994. He told me that Corrigan called him shortly after PSU's stunning invitation to the league became public on Dec. 14, 1989. It was an invitation fast-tracked by then-Illinois president Stan Ikenberry, a former Penn State vice provost, who was then chairman of the Big Ten presidents “Council of Ten.”
Only the league presidents knew; nobody else, including the Big Ten ADs, faculty reps and coaches, had been told. And when the ADs were gathered on a conference call and informed by their new commissioner, many were not amused.
Michigan's Bo Schembechler, then just retired as football coach and having assumed the AD's role, reacted with unbridled anger. He told me in 1994 that after a moment of stony silence he blurted into his phone to Delany for all to hear: “You gotta be s--tting me!”
Corrigan remembers being just as flabbergasted as everyone else, then remorseful that the ACC hadn't thought of inviting Penn State first. Tarman told me Corrigan called him the next day and lamented: “Why didn't you tell us you wanted in a major conference? We would've taken you in a heartbeat.”
“It's true,” said Corrigan, now 85 but as spry and sharp as when he was Notre Dame athletics director in the 1980s. His first reaction upon hearing the news?
“Aww, s---!,” replied Corrigan, using the barnyard expletive with a laugh. “What were we thinking of? What were we not thinking of?
“I remember having a meeting with [associate commissioner] Tom Mickle and some of our people and I said, 'We have been sitting here sound asleep while this thing happened.' And that's when we started thinking about getting Florida State.
“I remember saying, 'It's time. This is something that's got to be done. This is a new time in the world. Let's not sit here and regret later on because we didn't do anything.' I drove our people absolutely crazy. They used to get so mad at me because I kept bringing up expansion.
“But that was a great move that the Big Ten made. It was fabulous. I was just blown over. And I congratulated the Big Ten because I thought that was a hell of a move by them.”
But what if the 7-3 vote of the Big Ten presidents had gone 6-4 and the conference had been forced to renege on its offer? Would the ACC have pounced? Corrigan said he would have made it his mission:
“I would've liked it very much. Our people would have. Because we had a lot of respect for them. They were a good solid program. There were no bad stories about them out there.
“I would've. Now, I don't know if our [presidents] would have bought it. But I would have had no reservations at all.
“I honestly thought that it would've been a lot easier in a lot of ways for Penn State to come to the ACC. It would have been a whole lot easier travel-wise for them to be part of us.”
Had PSU become an ACC rather than Big Ten member in 1990, the potential ramifications by this time are staggering. Florida State likely would have still come aboard in 1991 to make the ACC 10 schools. But what about the 2003 expansion that added Virginia Tech, Miami and Boston College from the Big East? Would the ACC have bothered with BC with Penn State already in the fold and surely dominating the Northeast college football market? And is there any conceivable way Maryland leaves the ACC last year with neighbor PSU already in?
Moreover, does the Big Ten have the ratings boom-pow to launch the Big Ten Network with such audacity and demand the rates from cable providers it has? Does it make the money it has without Penn State? Does Nebraska jump from the Big 12 without that guaranteed annual revenue?
Of course, Penn State would not undo the move now. Neither would anyone in the Big Ten.
PSU has immeasurably benefitted from research resources and grant opportunities provided by Big Ten membership. It is a much better academic institution for having been a member 23 years.
The conference has very measurably benefitted from Penn State's massive alumni base, fan support and television ratings for football. They are part and parcel of the launch six years ago of the BTN.
That doesn't make the game of “What If...” any less intriguing. And it all could have been a very different story but for a single president's vote a generation ago.
The 2013 Big Ten football season will mark the 20th year that Penn State has competed in the storied conference. Find the rest of our Penn State: 20 years in the Big Ten series below.
• Penn State in ACC instead of B1G? Former commish Gene Corrigan says it easily could've happened
• Penn State and the Big Ten: A look back at the Nittany Lions' first season (1993)
• Sizing up the highs and lows of Penn State's first season in the Big Ten
• Penn State Numerology 101: A look at Penn State's inaugural Big Ten season

Thank you for posting this. It has long been my belief that not adding Penn State back then was THE misstep for the ACC. Penn State in the ACC changes everything afterwards.

I'm going to tell you something quite definitive. Unless the Big Ten turned Penn State down, which it almost did, the ACC has zero realistic chance at Penn State in the 80s. Zero. And it likely had little chance even in that hypothetical. It had a better, albeit very brief, window during the child rape scandal when the fan base was infuriated that the Big Ten was sanctioning them and discussing kicking them out. The UMD and Rutgers invite put an end to that.

Idea: let's jump back in time to when the Big East was first forming its baaketball league. If the ACC offered Pittsburgh before the Big East offered, would Pittsburgh have accepted its ACC invite at that time? Could the ACC have used Pittsburgh to lure Penn State??

(03-02-2024 06:55 PM)DawgNBama Wrote:  

(03-02-2024 12:27 PM)CrazyPaco Wrote:  

(03-02-2024 12:14 PM)ENCterrapin Wrote:  

(03-01-2024 11:20 PM)SouthernConfBoy Wrote:  Here are a couple of articles. One before the timeframe, one after:

https://www.deseret.com/1990/7/28/188734...ansion-br/

By Deseret News, Bill Glauber, The Baltimore Sun
The Atlantic Coast Conference took an important first step into the expansion race Wednesday.
Essentially the ACC agreed to formalize the informal, as league officials met and said they would explore expanding the league from its eight-school alignment."One of the things that is clear is that the conference feels pretty good about itself," ACC Commissioner Gene Corrigan said.
"We don't feel the need to rush any kind of expansion. But we're not at all closed to any expansion."
The pronouncement came at the conclusion of a five-hour meeting among ACC athletic directors and faculty representatives in Greensboro, N.C. The expansion campaign, which began with behind-the-scenes maneuvering following Penn State's entry into the Big Ten, is now official and declared in other conferences.
Wednesday, the league discussed the merits of 10 schools outside the conference. Among those mentioned as ACC expansion targets are Navy, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, South Carolina, Florida State, Miami, West Virginia, Boston College, Rutgers and Virginia Tech.
"We discussed south, north, east and west," Corrigan said.
Officials confined their debate to the possibility of including schools on a full-membership basis, closing off a move to recruit schools as football-only members.
That action could pose a threat to the Big East, a powerhouse in basketball but a non-entity in football.
Big East members Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Boston College have been searching for ways to place their football programs in a conference. West Virginia, South Carolina, Rutgers and Virginia Tech also have sought conference ties for their football teams.
Miami has courted the ACC in the past in an attempt to get its fledgling basketball program aligned with a powerful basketball conference.
Florida State is a prime target of the Southeastern Conference. Navy, by virtue of its strong athletic tradition, top academic reputation and national following, remains an attractive candidate for the ACC.
Television revenue from football is the driving force behind the expansion and realignment talks. The SEC and Metro Conference are also engaged in expansion talks that could affect the ACC.
"We came up with nothing really concrete this time," Corrigan said. "The most important thing is we didn't close off the idea of expansion. There are other things, nationally and regionally, that have to play themselves out. We'll be talking to people."
Corrigan joked that he would act as a "one-man search committee." As a former athletic director at Virginia and Notre Dame, and a key member on several National Collegiate Athletic Association committees, Corrigan is one of the most influential executives in college athletics.
Corrigan said that he would attempt to keep the search low key. Six of the eight ACC schools must approve new membership applications, and several ACC presidents have stated they will play a role in the expansion process.
"It's such a sensitive thing, right now," Corrigan said. "There really isn't a whole lot you can say."



Penn State in ACC instead of B1G? Former commish Gene Corrigan says it easily could've happened
• Updated: Jul. 23, 2013, 4:00 a.m.|
• Published: Jul. 23, 2013, 3:00 a.m.
•
•
•
•
Subscribers can gift articles to anyone
By
• David Jones | djones@pennlive.com
GeneCorrigan.jpg
Gene Corrigan was athletics director at Virginia (1971-81) and Notre Dame (1981-87) and commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference (1987-97).
(Univ. of Virginia)
Imagine Penn State in an Eastern all-sports conference including Syracuse and maybe even Pittsburgh. Not just any Eastern conference, not an ersatz Big East, but one with regular road trips to mild locales in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
It was a hair's breadth from happening. But at the 11th hour, after six months of haggling among its athletic directors and coaches, the Big Ten's presidents voted by the narrowest of possible margins to follow through on their stated intention and officially admit Penn State into its fold.
So ended in June 1990 a drama that very nearly extended PSU to Plan B in its quest to join a major conference. And what would that plan have been?
According to the man who was then commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference, he would have done everything in his considerable power to convince his league's university presidents that inviting Penn State was a no-brainer. Gene Corrigan says Penn State would likely have become a member of the ACC and would now have been so for over two decades.
I first heard this story from then-Penn State athletics director Jim Tarman back in 1994. He told me that Corrigan called him shortly after PSU's stunning invitation to the league became public on Dec. 14, 1989. It was an invitation fast-tracked by then-Illinois president Stan Ikenberry, a former Penn State vice provost, who was then chairman of the Big Ten presidents “Council of Ten.”
Only the league presidents knew; nobody else, including the Big Ten ADs, faculty reps and coaches, had been told. And when the ADs were gathered on a conference call and informed by their new commissioner, many were not amused.
Michigan's Bo Schembechler, then just retired as football coach and having assumed the AD's role, reacted with unbridled anger. He told me in 1994 that after a moment of stony silence he blurted into his phone to Delany for all to hear: “You gotta be s--tting me!”
Corrigan remembers being just as flabbergasted as everyone else, then remorseful that the ACC hadn't thought of inviting Penn State first. Tarman told me Corrigan called him the next day and lamented: “Why didn't you tell us you wanted in a major conference? We would've taken you in a heartbeat.”
“It's true,” said Corrigan, now 85 but as spry and sharp as when he was Notre Dame athletics director in the 1980s. His first reaction upon hearing the news?
“Aww, s---!,” replied Corrigan, using the barnyard expletive with a laugh. “What were we thinking of? What were we not thinking of?
“I remember having a meeting with [associate commissioner] Tom Mickle and some of our people and I said, 'We have been sitting here sound asleep while this thing happened.' And that's when we started thinking about getting Florida State.
“I remember saying, 'It's time. This is something that's got to be done. This is a new time in the world. Let's not sit here and regret later on because we didn't do anything.' I drove our people absolutely crazy. They used to get so mad at me because I kept bringing up expansion.
“But that was a great move that the Big Ten made. It was fabulous. I was just blown over. And I congratulated the Big Ten because I thought that was a hell of a move by them.”
But what if the 7-3 vote of the Big Ten presidents had gone 6-4 and the conference had been forced to renege on its offer? Would the ACC have pounced? Corrigan said he would have made it his mission:
“I would've liked it very much. Our people would have. Because we had a lot of respect for them. They were a good solid program. There were no bad stories about them out there.
“I would've. Now, I don't know if our [presidents] would have bought it. But I would have had no reservations at all.
“I honestly thought that it would've been a lot easier in a lot of ways for Penn State to come to the ACC. It would have been a whole lot easier travel-wise for them to be part of us.”
Had PSU become an ACC rather than Big Ten member in 1990, the potential ramifications by this time are staggering. Florida State likely would have still come aboard in 1991 to make the ACC 10 schools. But what about the 2003 expansion that added Virginia Tech, Miami and Boston College from the Big East? Would the ACC have bothered with BC with Penn State already in the fold and surely dominating the Northeast college football market? And is there any conceivable way Maryland leaves the ACC last year with neighbor PSU already in?
Moreover, does the Big Ten have the ratings boom-pow to launch the Big Ten Network with such audacity and demand the rates from cable providers it has? Does it make the money it has without Penn State? Does Nebraska jump from the Big 12 without that guaranteed annual revenue?
Of course, Penn State would not undo the move now. Neither would anyone in the Big Ten.
PSU has immeasurably benefitted from research resources and grant opportunities provided by Big Ten membership. It is a much better academic institution for having been a member 23 years.
The conference has very measurably benefitted from Penn State's massive alumni base, fan support and television ratings for football. They are part and parcel of the launch six years ago of the BTN.
That doesn't make the game of “What If...” any less intriguing. And it all could have been a very different story but for a single president's vote a generation ago.
The 2013 Big Ten football season will mark the 20th year that Penn State has competed in the storied conference. Find the rest of our Penn State: 20 years in the Big Ten series below.
• Penn State in ACC instead of B1G? Former commish Gene Corrigan says it easily could've happened
• Penn State and the Big Ten: A look back at the Nittany Lions' first season (1993)
• Sizing up the highs and lows of Penn State's first season in the Big Ten
• Penn State Numerology 101: A look at Penn State's inaugural Big Ten season

Thank you for posting this. It has long been my belief that not adding Penn State back then was THE misstep for the ACC. Penn State in the ACC changes everything afterwards.

I'm going to tell you something quite definitive. Unless the Big Ten turned Penn State down, which it almost did, the ACC has zero realistic chance at Penn State in the 80s. Zero. And it likely had little chance even in that hypothetical. It had a better, albeit very brief, window during the child rape scandal when the fan base was infuriated that the Big Ten was sanctioning them and discussing kicking them out. The UMD and Rutgers invite put an end to that.

Idea: let's jump back in time to when the Big East was first forming its baaketball league. If the ACC offered Pittsburgh before the Big East offered, would Pittsburgh have accepted its ACC invite at that time? Could the ACC have used Pittsburgh to lure Penn State??

No on both. Back in the early 80s, Pitt was a perennial top 10, national champion expecting football program at the time. Things were different. The eastern independents viewed things much differently than today; the "Big 4" of Pitt, PSU, WVU, and Syracuse were historically viewed as the traditional core in the east and previously even had had certain agreements between them on things like recruiting almost like an informal loose confederation. The ACC was not viewed with great respect for football. The Big East was brand new, but was the hot new kid on the block, a media darling tied at the hip to the other hot new kid on the block, ESPN.

A big part of the Big East's reason to invite Pitt was to kill Paterno's attempt at an eastern all-sports conference which would have ripped Syracuse and BC out in its infancy and really relegated the BE to essentially Atlantic 10 status as it was just getting off the ground. An eastern all-sports conference could not happen without both Penn State AND Pitt. They were the nucleus of eastern independent football and were both perennial top 10 programs more akin to Miami and FSU in their heyday when those rivalries determined national titles.

Anger over Pitt joining the Big East instead of the Paterno conference is a big reason he refused to play Pitt once he moved Penn State into the Big Ten. He was bitter. Very, very, very bitter. It was not a friendly rivalry at all. But don't be mistaken, no one in the east wanted an eastern conference led by Paterno and construed the way he wanted it...pretty much everything to PSU's advantage (sharing hoops revenue, not sharing football revenue)...that's why no one else joined ahead of Pitt's decision. And Paterno was not well trusted. He had the reputation of being a weasel behind the scenes, and certainly the way Penn State exited the Eastern 8 (now the A10) did not help. But if Pitt had gone with Paterno, everyone else in the northeast would have had to follow, and Paterno was infuriated by Pitt's choice to take the Big East invite.

(03-02-2024 12:45 PM)Garrettabc Wrote:  WVU wouid have been an academic exception, just like UL was. If Pitt, SU, BC, UM, VT can share a conference with them, then I see no reason to black ball them. The ACC is an athletic conference, not a country club.

No, you are just showing that you don't understand half the members of the conference. You think everyone thinks like you, they do not.

Dawg,

There is a huge institutional loss of memory when it comes to the Southern Conference. The SoCon was the ACC from 1933 to 1953 until the 7 left, and invited UVa to rejoin in order to curb stomp VT.

From 1937 until 1959 Duke had an near annual game with Pitt, interrupted only by WWII. Penn regularly played MD, UNC, UVa, and Duke. Penn State regularly played MD but also South Carolina, UNC, and UVa. If not for Jim Crow, all three likely get invited in 1953 and all three likely accept. If Penn goes on to the Ivy in late 1950 or early 1960's they might have taken UVa and Duke with them.

A huge shake up was happening in the late 50's and early 60's along the lines of Race, Television Broadcasting, and Elite Academics. As far and away the most progressive Southern State, NC was an odd duck compared to South Carolina and the State of Virginia. It's difficult to say how things would have played out, but I firmly believe that a purple, Communist, Satanist will be accepted at most places in the ACC if scores enough points.