If you set the situation back two years to when that info was supposedly current, many in the PSU family were very upset with the B1G.
There had been some ongoing grousing by PSU fans over the years...PSU, an eastern school in a midwest conference took a while to find its feet. The fact that when PSU went undefeated in 1994 and no writer from Big Ten country voted them #1 in the AP rankled some fans.
All in all, I do not think any P5 school is going anywhere nor did PSU think about going anywhere, but I do believe that Penn State folks were upset with the conference after the JoPa situation....and that created back chatter.
Total BS, my father voted for PSU as an AP voter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press & Dispatch. In fact the Midwest may have given PSU more votes than any other region - though not much. Even the Upper East Coast went overwhelmingly for Nebraska.
Nebraska was the sentimental favorite for years because Osbourne had so many close losses and they got hosed against PSU during the season PSU won it all, I believe 82. PSU had already won 2 NCs under Paterno before Osbourne got his first.
The 94 PSU team was great, but they barely squeaked by Indiana and Illinois that season.
The country, again, went overwhelmingly for PSU.
Stop reading PSU threads, they're dominated by old timers who can't accept how mediocre the program became towards Jo Pa's twilight where he utterly lost control of the program - was way too old to coach. If you monitored BWI Illustrated over the last 4 years of Jo Pa's career, the vast majority of the mostly terrible human beings on that website wanted Jo Pa gone, but then did a 180 when PSU lost control of their program & got what they deserved, but recaptured their wins due to legal mistakes by the NCAA.
Bottom line: PSU got watered down in the BIG because they simply can't beat the likes of Michigan and OSU in the big games, so the old timer Jo Bots blame the refs. They are hardly the core of that fanbase. Heck, PSU hardly has winning record against Minnesota in BIG play.
It's been argued that Barry Alvarez was concerned about losing PSU to the ACC, but he was knee jerking to threads and message boards via misinformation and he's far from the commissioner of the league.
But to be honest with you, I could care less of PSU leaves - there are too many whiners in that fanbase. Their wrestling and volleyball programs would fall apart in the ACC, they've won 11 titles over the past decade in these sports in large part because of BIG membership. Their recruiting base would crumble in these two sports with an ACC membership. They've never proven to be a good basketball school capable of capturing a rich stock of Pa hoops talent - so they'd just cellar dwell in ACC hoops.
I dare say if PSU bolts to the ACC, then a program like Rutgers, Jersey having better hs talent than PA now, could rise under the right coach.
Lastly, PSU can't complain about having a Midwestern feel anymore, Rutgers and Maryland, along with OSU give the program 3 border state programs. Moreover, PSU idiots often complain about the Rust Belt, when in fact PA is very Rusty - historically speaking.
