Todd Blackledge Says Joe Paterno Wanted Penn State To Be Part Of An 'Eastern Sports Conference' Instead Of B1G

NBC college football analyst and former Penn State quarterback Todd Blackledge joined OutKick's Dan Dakich on Tuesday and made some interesting comments about legendary coach Joe Paterno. 

Blackledge talked about the Paterno statue, which was torn down from the Penn State campus after Jerry Sandusky was arrested. 

Blackledge also noted something very intriguing about Paterno not wanting the school to join the Big 10, which they did in 1990. 

On the Paterno statue, Blackledge said he doesn't know if the school will ever put it back up or name the field after Paterno, but he supports the impact Paterno had on his life. 

"It's people that played for him that… appreciate what he did for them," Blackledge said. 

"We know what we believe, what we feel and how we feel about him and the difference he made in our lives…. His imprint, in a positive way, on what Penn State football is and was and continues to be will never go away." 

General view of a sign in the location where the statue of former Penn State Nittany Lions head coach Joe Paterno once stood on the school's campus, just outside of Beaver Stadium.

(Rich Barnes/US PRESSWIRE)

As a former Penn State student, I agree with Blackledge. Paterno was beloved at the school and not just because he coached football. 

He helped build libraries, donated money for scholarships and had a massive positive impact on the lives of thousands of young people – not just football players, either. 

I don't want this to turn into a debate about what Paterno knew, or didn't know, about Jerry Sandusky. Personally, my opinion on Paterno is that he had a much more positive impact on society than a negative one. 

Moving on, Dan Dakich asked Blackledge about Bobby Knight and Joe Paterno because Dakich heard Paterno tell Knight that he didn't think it was good for Penn State to join the Big Ten conference. 

"Coach Paterno was really against joining the Big Ten because he felt like… parents from the East Coast wanted to see [their kids] play Pittsburgh or West Virginia or Rutgers [and] not Iowa or Indiana," Dakich recalled.

Penn State Nittany Lions quarterback Todd Blackledge with head coach Joe Paterno at Beaver Stadium in 1981. 

(Malcolm Emmons/Imagn Images)

"Originally, [Paterno] wanted there to be an all Eastern sports conference," Blackledge said. 

"And, at that time, there were a couple of schools that were in the Big East Conference with basketball. They didn't want to leave that to start an all-sports conference in the East.

"I think Joe was kind of upset by that," Blackledge continued. "When they ended up going to the Big Ten, I think he knew it fit. But I think if he had had his way before that, it would have been to do something with all the Eastern schools and make it a power conference in the East." 

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Just think how different the landscape of college sports, particularly college football, might be if that had happened? 

Now, we're as far away from Paterno's vision as possible. He must have rolled over in his grave when he heard that USC, Washington, UCLA and Oregon were joining the Big Ten. 

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