We waste much time lamenting about the loss of moral focus in college athletics with the latest seism tic move of UCLA and USC moving from the Pac-12 to Big 10.
There’s more to come, so get ready to deal with it.
What we can say with reasonably certainty that if in the summer of 1989 Penn State had not made the decision to pursue membership in the Big 10, the college athletic world would have been much different..
“”By far the most significant move during my career,” says former Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese, whose conference chose not to invite Penn
Just for fun, let’s see what the CFB landscape would have looked like (our guesses) if Penn State had been included as a member of the fledgling Big East football conference.
There are some omissions and projections, of course, but here’s a Power 6 football set up CFB COULD have had.
Big East
1. Penn State
2. Miami
3. Boston College
4. UConn.
5. UMass
6. Pittsburgh
7. Syracuse
8. Rutgers
9. West Virginia
10. Temple
11. Army
12. Navy
Atlantic Coast Conference
1. Virginia Tech
2. Virginia
3. North Carolina
4. Wake Forest
5. Duke
6. NC State
7. Clemson
8. Georgia Tech
9. Maryland
10. Florida State
11. Louisville
12. UCF
Big 10
1. Indiana
2. Purdue
3. Illinois
4. Northwestern
5. Notre Dame
6. Nebraska
7. Michigan
8. Michigan State
9. Ohio State
10. Iowa
11. Minnesota
12. Wisconsin
Southeastern Conference
1. Alabama
2. Auburn
3. LSU
4. Miss
5. Miss State
6. Florida
7. Georgia
8. Tennessee
9. Vanderbilt
10. South Carolina
11. Kentucky
12. Arkansas
Big 12
1. Oklahoma
2. Oklahoma State
3. Iowa State
4. Kansas
5. Kansas State
6. Colorado
7. Houston
8. Texas
9. TCU
10. Texas Tech
11. Baylor
12. Texas A&M
Pac 12
1. UCLA
2. USC
3. California
4. Stanford
5. Oregon
6. Oregon State
7. Washington
8. Washington State
9. Arizona
10. Arizona State
11. San Diego State
12. Utah,
There it is, a group of geographically balanced Power 6 conferences.
