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Message: [QUOTE="nzm136, post: 1648045, member: 2531"] The ladies and the turtles were added for PSU. Look at PSU's recruiting classes. They're extremely VA, NJ, DE, and east PA heavy. Look at their alumni bases. DMV and NYC are two of their biggest alumni concentrations. Look at their donors. DMV and NYC are where their rich donors live. Look at where they recruit students. After PA the 4 most common states of origin are NY, NJ, MD, and VA. PSU's most played opponents are #1 Pitt, #2 Syracuse, #3 WVU (who is dying to join the ACC and would have agreed to be #16 in a heartbeat, Big XII GoR or not), #4 Temple (buy game), #5 Navy (N/A), and #6 UMD (who was in the ACC at the time), a couple of nolonger relevant teams (i.e. Bucknell) or games that are there PURELY because PSU has been in the B1G for 25 years, and Rutgers at #11. Ignoring yearly B1G games (i.e. focusing on the games that they chose to play when they were indy), UNC, NCSU, and ND all score really well. Miami is a semi-rivalry game (it has a Catholics vs. Convicts vibe and has been played for a NC before), ND is very much a rivalry game, and VT 100% would be (that's why they're scheduled to play OOC in the coming years), both Clemson and FSU would be HUGE games and GREAT for recruiting, and GT would be a decent game that's also recruiting gold (Franklin even held a camp down in Georgia shortly after the RU add). The ACC also has elite basketball. Granted PSU will never be a basketball power, but their best bet at any relevance is to be able to tell kids that they play Duke, UNC, UMD, Syracuse, Pitt, ND, and UVA every year in conference and that their team gets exposure that is unrivaled amongst other low tier teams that aren't in the ACC. Finally, the ACC was an absolutely elite academic institution at the time, only eclipsed by the Ivy League. PSU 100% wanted Rutgers and Maryland for very obvious reasons that had NOTHING to do with their TV money. And, since the ACC is EXTREMELY attractive to PSU and EXTREMELY interested in PSU (for obvious reasons), PSU could credibly threaten to leave the conference. Given that PSU has LEGIONS of fans and is a rain maker, it was cheaper to bite the bullet and add Rutgers and Maryland to keep PSU than it was to let PSU leave. Rutgers is not a valuable TV commodity. They never were (see BIG EAST TV payout) and they probably never will be - except for their relationship with PSU. All this fretting about not adding them is crazy. Had we added the Knights, the B1G would have just offered them a HUGE payout (i.e. like they did), and they would have left the ACC, along with UMD. And, since RU alone isn't worth an ACC payout, the money withheld would have mostly come out of the existing members' payouts anyway. It mostly would have netted. EDIT: Wisconsin's HoF coach and AD even said the add was to keep PSU from getting wandering eyes. Delaney also said something similar and expressed shock at how astonishingly unprepared RU was for the B1G. EDIT X2: "VT" was changed to "VA." Apparently I associate Virginia Tech with Virginia - either that or Vermont. [/QUOTE]

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