You may be right - I've had a lot to drink
.
It's alright, happens to the best of us.
Both can be true though he isn't objective about Penn State and he does annoy me talking about them.
Also quite possible (likely?). Wasn't trying to suggest this, really.
I do think Michigan and Ohio State lend more stature to a league than Penn State even before the sanctions, nevermind after. I think PSU is both well behind and not bigger than OSU and Michigan.
Michigan, Ohio State, ND, Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma, USC is probably that first tier. But I'm not convinced they draw much more ratings than Penn State, Nebraska, and the other schools in that second tier that I can't really remember. I think you're right in suggesting that there is more national cache about those schools. But since college football is less democratic than college basketball, I would suggest that the difference in perception between Penn State and Michigan is probably less than that between Duke and Louisville in basketball. People know Duke is better historically, but it's not
so great a difference. And the difference between Louisville and everyone else (generally speaking) is cavernous.
Pretty much my point on the refs: If there are Penn State fans who think they get screwed by refs in the Big 10 there are a half dozen ACC fanbases that think the same thing about their refs. If you want to escape biased officiating the last place you want to go is the ACC. Even UConn has been burned by the terrible Ron Cherry.
You are right in that all fanbases think they get screwed by the refs. Louisville hasn't let a call or two go yet. I think the difference here is that Penn State fans always felt like outsiders because of how late they joined, and so they saw the issues not just as bad refs, but as the league itself screwing them over. I can imagine that, psychologically, its difference. If UConn ever joins the ACC, those refs will not be just refs, but representations of the ACCs desire for us to suck relative to their "real" members. Is that what the school and administration think? No. Was Penn State ever going to leave? No.