Joe and Bo
- Thread starter john4psu
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and Bo showed his genuine appreciation to Joe by throwing a hissy fit when Penn State and Joe were invited into the Big Ten. I believe that had Bo been supportive of the addition, Penn State would not have received or continue to receive the "Honig Treatment" from the conference.
Sorry, but I don't see Mr. 5-12 in Bowl games as much of a hero.
Sorry, but I don't see Mr. 5-12 in Bowl games as much of a hero.
I think Bo's hissy fit was not necessarily at Penn State, but at the Conference Presidents for not including ADs in the decision making process. PSU moving to the Big Ten was the first in the series of dominoes regarding conference realignment. Bo was smart enough to know that, and he was smart enough to stand up and say "Hey, bring us in on the decision making".
Penn State was the vehicle for Bo to vent about the decision.
Then, did Michigan vote "Yes" to add Penn State? Surely you know Bo's opinion was instrumental in that vote.
That's exactly right. Bo was primarily pissed at Jim Delany.
Delany got buy-in from the Conference Presidents but he didn't get buy-in (or any input, for that matter) from the ADs.
If you look back over the past 50 years you will find thousands of occasions, large and small, where Joe Paterno made a particular event better by his presence. It may have been the clip we just witnessed, or it may have been the gracious minute or so talk he had with my wife as he walked beside her crossing campus. I know enough about Joe Paterno to know he would never have done anything he believed would harm anyone, especially a child. The world is the poorer for his absence.
I have no idea. But Penn State is in the Big Ten and has been for 25 years, so enough people voted that mattered.
Well said, sir. As is history for choosing to disregard the lessons he taught us.
That was the issue exactly. Shortly after PSU joined the Big 10, FSU joined the ACC, Bobby Bowden replied, we can do whatever we want, were the Penn State of the south.
Truer words have never been spoken. Thank you.
Michigan voted "no," but Jim Duderstadt, it's president at the time, didn't need any encouragement from Bo. Time has proven that Duderstadt is just another empty suit.
According to the Los Angeles Times, circa September 1990:
Gracious losers that they are, the SEC athletic directors voted last week not to extend mighty Florida State an invitation to join. Of course, they did this after they learned the Seminoles had committed to the ACC.
Then, completing the classless farce, Louisiana State Athletic Director Joe Dean suggested that Florida State would regret the day it spurned the SEC. Dean went so far as to say that SEC teams should consider banning the Seminoles as future opponents.
As one might expect, few tears were shed for the SEC.
“The SEC was so aggressive, so overly aggressive, that it caused other conferences to defend themselves,” said Fred Jacoby, Southwest Conference commissioner. “They’re acting like a jilted lover, a jilted suitor. (The vote) was a face-saving technique.”
I've never seen that article, thanks. One sports outlet tells one story and another service spins it differently.
Joe Dean was a butthead. FSU tried for years to join the SEC to no avail. The ACC extended an invitation and the rest is history.
To understand the FSU situation you have to understand UF. At the time, FSU was considered a womens school. Sure, FSU was up and coming, but outside of Physics, Film and maybe one or two other things...not much.
UF had nothing to gain having FSU in the SEC. FSU (like Penn State having to play at PITT every year) had to play at UF every year. In the State of Florida, UF is da sh1t. And if they wanted to block FSU in the SEC, then it would happen.
And, you consider Alabama didn't think to highly of Bowden. Why? Not sure. They just didn't.
I believe BOTH Bama and UF blocked FSU into the SEC. I was at FSU at the time and this was what most people talked about. They have their politics analogous to Paterno trying to form an all big east conference (which PITT blocked).
And, the ACC didn't necessarily welcome FSU with open arms, either. North Carolina schools tried to block the move. If FSU had a very good basketball team, I don't think the move would ever have happened. But, FSU was only a decent basketball program. NC, DUKE, Wake Forest and NC St had nothing to fear with FSU basketball.
The more interesting thing to me, now, is moving forward. If we go to 16 team MEGA conferences, I see FSU, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State going to the SEC and South Carolina moving to the ACC.
I think this is another instance of having nothing to do with Penn State specifically. Duderstadt hated college athletics and wasn’t going to vote for anything that forwarded its impact in higher education. This is a man who has since written a book and numerous articles about the evils and excess of college athletics, and that if he had it to do over again he’d have tried to move Michigan out of Division I. He also fired Gary Moeller the day after a drunken outburst at a restaurant without telling Bo he was doing it; he wanted to kill the program (ironically it resulted in promoting the only head coach to win a NC at Michigan in 50+ years).
Understood about Duderstadt. But if he hated college athletics so much, why didn't he do anything to change it when he was in a position of power? I guess the answer goes along the lines of "money talks, bullshit walks." That's why I got a chuckle when I saw Fat Barron being appointed to that wind farm called the Knight Commission. Does anybody really expect anything of substance coming from a group co-chaired by Arne Duncan? Never thought I would ever say that I miss that useless dung pile, but then along came Betsy DeVos.
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