| The Philadelphia Inquirer FOGELSVILLE, Pa. -- When Joe Paterno sits in front of his television in early December, he'll hear a commentator talk about the quarterbacks in the Big 12, or the powerful teams in the Southeastern Conference, as they prepare for their conference championship games. SAVE MONEY ON TRAVEL DEALS And the Big Ten? Well, no conference championship game means its teams are out of sight. To Paterno, that also means out of mind, including the minds of the high school stars he and other coaches are trying to recruit. "I hate to be sitting there watching the Southeastern Conference and the Big 12 and there's no mention of the Big Ten", Penn State's 82-year-old coach said Wednesday night before speaking at an "Evening with Joe" gathering of Lehigh Valley alumni. "There's so much interest in college football, so many more people are watching it", he said. "The SEC and Big 12 are promoting their quarterbacks and we're sitting there and nobody's paying attention to us. I think it affects your recruiting, too. I know it affects your play, especially if the other guys are playing up until three weeks before your bowl game." At last week's Big Ten football meeting in Chicago, Paterno talked up the idea of the conference's adding a 12th team, preferably one that is big in the New York television market, such as Syracuse, Rutgers or Pittsburgh. That would enable the conference to break into two six-team divisions in which the first-place teams play for the league title, keeping the Big Ten in the public eye and better preparing two teams for bowl contests. "We've got to be alert to what's happening, so I just put it on the table and we talked about it", Paterno said. "Sure, there are some problems involved with it and I don't know what they are." Paterno said the matter was left for Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany to evaluate. "We told Jim we have confidence in him looking into it", the coach said. "If it's the best thing for the conference, he'll see what he can try to do with the (university) presidents, because they're the ones who are going to make the decision. So it wasn't definitely yes or definitely no. It was like, 'Hey, it's a good idea to look at.' " Delany told the Chicago Tribune after the meetings that expansion was a "back-burner issue." He said that he informs the conference's presidents when schools express interest in joining the Big Ten, but that they're usually not interested. Paterno also said the fact that President Obama is pushing for a college football playoff "can't hurt", but he didn't sound optimistic about it happening any time soon. "Maybe people are saying, 'Maybe we ought to take a look at this thing,' " he said. "I don't know. People say to me, 'Well, what would be your playoff plan?' Well, then I've got to stop shooting my mouth off and I've got to come up with something concrete, and I don't have anything concrete. "But I don't want to hear that baloney about missing classes. The NCAA (basketball tournament) goes on forever; they miss classes all the time. Who are you kidding about classes? It has to do with this" -- and Paterno rubbed his thumb against his index and middle fingers, indicating money. Paterno was reluctant to talk about Florida State coach Bobby Bowden, his friend, as the NCAA investigates whether to void 14 victories in 2006 and 2007 because of the use of ineligible players caught in a cheating scandal. If the NCAA rules against Florida State, Paterno would be 15 victories ahead of Bowden for his career, instead of having a 383-382 edge. "I can't tell you how many games I've won", Paterno said. "I can't tell you how many games Bobby has won. But I would not want somebody to put me down in a grave and say, 'Here's a guy who won more games than any other college coach' because they took 12 games away or 14 games or whatever number. That's not right." BOWMAN STILL WITH TEAM Paterno said he did not have a problem with linebacker Navarro Bowman, who was sentenced to an additional 12 months of probation last month for admitting he smoked marijuana, a violation of his probation. He said Bowman, the team's leading tackler last season, did well in the spring semester. The linebacker sat out the spring scrimmage. "In all fairness to Navarro, there was some misunderstanding as to who was going to supervise" his probation, Paterno said. "So I think he's OK. He had a good semester. He did well. He took some tough courses. Right now we don't have any problems, as long as he keeps up his academics."
(c) 2009, The Philadelphia Inquirer. Visit Philadelphia Online, the Inquirer's World Wide Web site, at http://www.philly.com/ Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. A service of YellowBrix, Inc. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Related News Topics:
Top sports stories
News of Pennsylvania
General sports briefs
Other sports news
Mixed Sports News and Releases
Sports photographs
Miscellaneous sports news
Miscellaneous sports news
|
