I've written in the past my feelings about Penn State and I'm quite aware that my feelings about them have gotten increasingly negative over the years. It hasn't always been that way. My earliest memories of Penn State is the beating they gave Woody Hayes' last Ohio State team in 1978 and the movie about John Cappiletti and his brother Joey. In all honesty thought I really never gave them a lot of thought until they joined the league in 1993. I distinctly remember looking forward to meeting them in our first game and on the day of our first meeting I made a point to go out of my way to meet with Penn State fans to welcome them to the league. Even though the brass at many of the universities weren't thrilled with the idea, the fans seemed to be excited to be in the league. I particularly remember sitting with a couple at the Ohio State skull session and figured if they were representatives of the normal Penn State fan that we had done well getting them to join.
Fast forward 18 years and it seems to be a common thought in Happy Valley that they want to leave the league. Certainly the Sandusky situation didn't help and the Big Ten official resposne just threw gas on the fire. But the feelings go back further than that and I've always felt that the main issue for Penn State is they are just a bad geographic fit with the rest of the league. It seems odd to say that in a day when Boise State is in the Big East but that is why leagues like the Big East are continually in flux. A solid league has teams that don't mind looking out for fellow league members and somewhere that went awry in regards to Penn State.
That got me to thinking about their options. The Big East might have been a good option a year ago but it was aways a long shot as they'd need to get a few ACC teams to create a good league. The exit of Syracuse and Pitt has weakened the Big East to the point that it is no longer viable. Contrast that with the ACC. In the past 10 years they ACC has picked up quality northern teams in Virginia Tech, Boston College, Pitt, and Syracuse. They are currently sitting at 14 teams and while I think 16 is a bit unwieldy, here's how the league would look if you added Penn State and Connecticut
North
Penn State
Connecticut
Boston College
Syracuse
Pitt
Maryland
Virginia
Virginia Tech
South
Miami
Florida State
Clemson
North Carolina
Wake Forest
Duke
North Carolina St.
Georgia Tech
If I were an Penn State/ACC fan, I'd drool at that league and it actually might make more sense than the current 14 teams as it lines up perfectly as two "leagues" of 8. I could see this league not caring about getting interaction between the Northern and Southern teams so the league games would only be the 7 divisional games leaving schools free to play 5 out of conference or rivalry games. The two divisional winners would meet in the championship game to represent the league in the BCS.
The problem of course for Penn State is that they'd almost definitely lose money on the sports side of things unless they got some sort of consessions from the league. That ignores the possibility that the school could lose millions of dollars in grants if they left the Big Ten's academic consortium. There are other schools that do things because they feel it is right for the university despite monetary loss (Notre Dame). Is it possible that Penn State could do that as well? Anything is possible and the fact that the ACC culture would be a better fit for Penn State might mean that the decision makers decide their forturnes are better found elsewhere.
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