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Message: [QUOTE="Ldandy, post: 1229426, member: 4584"] Do I think there was some level of appeasement directed at PSU when the conference added Rutgers and UMD? Possibly, but more likely it was done as a money grab to maximize revenues for The BTN. IMO there are two primary issues at play constantly trumpeted by the relocate to The ACC Crowd: 1)The league's poor handling of PSU from its inclusion in 1989 all the way up to the present day. The assimilation of PSU and its fans was handled so poorly from day one that the scars of resentment run deep even 20 years later. So bad that Delany felt compelled to offer a weak mea culpa to PSU Supporters when talking about integrating RU and UMD into the league. When these schools joined the conference there were week long celebrations. When PSU joined... Do you recall that multiple public figures in both athletics and academics came out against our inclusion? I remember both Bobby Knight and old sainted Bo being incredibly critical of our joining, and not in a messageboard rumor fashion either. Openly trashing the school and decision to add it in the main stream media. I also not so fondly recall one of the conference's presidents opining that he couldn't believe that the conference would lower themselves to add a "cow college" like PSU to its membership. This was said despite the fact that PSU was a long standing member of The AAU since 1989, and ranked ahead of several conference members at the time. Since then the slights have been more on the athletic side. From the conference hanging PSU out to dry with scheduling of sports for 2 full years, 1993's excessive noise penalty against Michigan, 1994, a rash of questionable calls like Hartsock's catch, Tony Johnson's 2 feet in/incompletion, Avant's heel/toe, UM's Phantom 2 Seconds, Matt Lehman's TD/" fumble" against UNL, OSU's trapped INT complete w/"faulty" replay equipment + their 3 addl seconds on FG, and on and on. Conspiracy? Nah. Questionable officiating by referees with personal biases? Possibly. After 20 years of experiencing some of the most gutwrenching types of losses, you start to wonder if you are better of taking your chances elsewhere. 2)The second element is geography. More PSU Alums live in The ACC Footprint than The B1G. Albeit that has been greatly decreased with the new membership. For me The B1G is the better choice for a multitude of reasons, however the death by a thousand papercuts that we have experienced for 2 decades + is becoming hard to swallow regardless of dollars or exposure. If the conference would just call a fairer game, and admit when it is completely wrong like it was against OSU this year, and MD a few days ago. Also giving us back the bowl money they kept from us while OSU recieved theirs while also on probation would be a good olive branch. [/QUOTE]

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