Paterno Demands 12

You have got to love Joe Paterno.  He is not only an excellent coach but also a forward thinking champion of both college football and the Big Ten.  Maisel, over at ESPN.com, is reporting that Joe has been lobbying to get the Big Ten to expand to 12 teams.

Joe's reasoning is rock-solid.  Lets get a twelfth team so we can have a real conference championship and stay on TV right along with the other conferences.

"We go into hiding for six weeks," Paterno said, referring to the hiatus between the end of the Big Ten regular season and the BCS bowls. The other major FBS conferences play into the first weekend of December.
"Everybody else is playing playoffs on television," Paterno said. "You never see a Big Ten team mentioned. So I think that's a handicap.
"I've tried to talk to the Big Ten people about, 'Let's get a 12th team -- Syracuse, Rutgers, Pitt -- we could have a little bit of a playoff.'"

Joe also said that when he suggested the possibility of expanding the Big Ten to include more exciting games and to possibly include a larger part of the country he was met with "chuckles".

"You know, it's a conference that's dominated by a couple of people," Paterno said. "If I start talking, they're polite, but they snicker.

"They don't know I know they're snickering, but they're polite. ...I wish I were younger and going to be around [another] 20 years."

I wonder who he could be speaking of.  Delaney, Michigan, and Ohio State; we are looking in your direction!

There is absolutely no reason not to expand to twelve teams.  Bigger Market means more revenue.  More TV exposure means more revenue.  A real Big Ten Champion means not having to put up with Ohio State claiming to share titles with the Nittany Lions in years when they couldn't win on the field.  Get this done!

GO STATE!