Penn State Could Block Pitt from Big 10

If the opportunity arrises, one college football insider believes Penn State would block the Pitt Panthers from entering their league.

PITTSBURGH -- Conference realignment has sent college athletics into a spiral over the past two years and left teams like the Pitt Panthers wondering both whether their current leagues are still viable and what their next move will be if not. 

With so many parts still moving and key details remaining unknown, it's hard to predict how the dominoes will fall, especially for a school like Pitt that is decidedly not one of the elites like USC, UCLA, Texas and Oklahoma - who are already headed to greener pastures - or even Clemson and Florida State, who will likely face few challenges finding a new home if and when their current ones become untenable. 

College football insider Brett McMurphy believes that, while Pitt is not one of the sport's biggest brands, it does have some juice behind it as a candidate for one of the impending super leagues in the Big 10 or SEC, with the former being a more obvious fit. 

That said, McMurphy added that one of Pitt's rivals from the Big 10 would not be thrilled at the idea of welcoming the Panthers, an in-state competitor. 

“So if you were going to ask where Pitt would end up, one thing you’d have to look at is the Big 10 and Penn State," McMurphy said in an appearance on 93.7 The Fan. "Would Penn State want Pitt in the Big 10? And if they did or didn’t, it wouldn’t mean they would automatically be in or not be in, but it would be a consideration. I know the SEC until recently with the addition of Texas, they have not added any new members that were in states where they already had existing members.”

McMurphy said he hasn't spoken to anyone within the Penn State athletic department about how they would feel if Pitt was a candidate to join the Big 10, but predicted they would be opposed to adding the Panthers specifically. 

“I have no inside information on this but based on other schools and other conferences, the answer would be … ‘Hell no,’” he said.

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