Adam Zagoria covers basketball at all levels. He is the author of two books and an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Sports Illustrated, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide.
During his weekly press conference Tuesday, Penn State coach Joe Paterno suggested that Rutgers could potentially join the Big Ten Conference.
“I don’t know where we’re (Big Ten) going to end up,” Paterno said. “There might be even some speculation that Penn State maybe ought to get into something different or we ought to try to go out and get some people from the East to come into the Big Ten, that we maybe ought to solicit Jim Delany and some of the leaders of the Big Ten, ‘Hey, why don’t we go take a good look at Syracuse and Pitt?’
“Now that they’re out of it, ‘Why don’t we take a look at Rutgers?’ and take a look at somebody that we can bring in from the East so that the Big Ten doesn’t end in State College.”
Brett McMurphy of CBSSports.com is reporting that West Virginia has been rejected by both the ACC and the SEC. West Virginia reportedly applied to join both leagues after Syracuse and Pittsburgh jumped to the ACC over the weekend.
“Multiple Big East sources said they have been told by WVU officials that WVU rejected by ACC & SEC,” McMurphy said on Twitter.
West Virginia athletic director Oliver Luck issued a statement on Sunday about conference realignment but the Big East is not even mentioned in the statement.
“There is no question that the landscape of college athletics is once again changing,” Luck said. “West Virginia University has great tradition as the state’s flagship land-grant institution and we will continue working to do what’s best for our University and its athletic teams. No matter how the college athletic landscape changes, there is no doubt WVU is and will remain a national player.”
Meantime, the Kansas City Star reports that the SEC is interested in adding Missouri as its 14th team, but is willing to wait until the future of the Big 12 is decided.
That is the question the Pirate coaching staff and Seton Hall fans everywhere have to be asking themselves in the wake of Kyle Anderson’s decision to go to UCLA.
“I don’t know where they go from here because they went all in and they did what they had to do,” one Division 1 head coach said. “When you miss on the kid that you must get, there’s no where to turn.
If Big East Commissioner John Marinatto maintains his hardline stance about teams exiting the conference, Jim Boeheim and Jim Calhoun may never coach a single game in the ACC.
“I could see that happening,” one veteran Big East coach told SNY.tv.