I wouldn't waste my time worrying about a hand full of Penn State fans calling for a jump to the ACC. Penn State is first and foremost a football school. The ACC was,is,will be, a basketball first conference. A move to the ACC would ultimately mean a Wednesday night game (the NFL just announced a full schedule of Thursday night games) at Duke or Wake in front of 12K fans, most of whom would be students. i.e. It would mean a huge drop in revenue from the BTN to the ACC football TV contract.
More importantly, Penn State was a middle-of-the-pack state school academically until they entered the Big 10. The school's academic/research reputation and revenue grew rapidly since the affiliation.
IF the resources of the NC Research Triangle are shared by all schools, and not just the NC schools, then Penn State's faculty might be OK with the move. If not, the loss of the Big 10's academic and research consortium would be a huge loss for the school.
But here's the football reality (from multiple sources) of just what a jump to the ACC from the Big 10 would mean:
Stadium College Conference Capacity Opened
Alumni Stadium Boston College ACC 44,500 1957
BB&T Field Wake Forest ACC 31,500 1968
Bobby Dodd Stadium Georgia Tech ACC 55,000 1930
Byrd Stadium Maryland ACC 54,000 1950
Carter Finley Stadium NC State ACC 57,583 1966
Doak Campbell Stadium Florida State ACC 84,300 1950
Sun Life Stadium Miami ACC 76,500 1987
Kenan Stadium North Carolina ACC 60,000 1927
Lane Stadium Virginia Tech ACC 66,233 1965
Memorial Stadium Clemson ACC 81,500 1942
Scott Stadium Virginia ACC 61,500 1931
Wallace Wade Stadium Duke ACC 33,941 1929
Beaver Stadium Penn State Big Ten 107,282 1960
Camp Randall Stadium Wisconsin Big Ten 80,321 1917
Kinnick Stadium Iowa Big Ten 70,585 1929
Memorial Stadium Illinois Big Ten 69,249 1923
Memorial Stadium Indiana Big Ten 52,692 1960
Memorial Stadium Nebraska Big Ten 81,067 1923
Michigan Stadium Michigan Big Ten 109,901 1927
Ohio Stadium Ohio State Big Ten 102,329 1922
Ross Ade Stadium Purdue Big Ten 62,500 1924
Ryan Field Northwestern Big Ten 49,256 1926
Spartan Stadium Michigan State Big Ten 75,005 1923
TCF Bank Stadium Minnesota Big Ten 50,805 2009
Football stadiums in the Atlantic Coast Conference generally are less full than they were last year.
The 12 ACC teams have been filled to only 86.9 percent capacity this season. According to league data, its stadiums were roughly 90 percent full during the 2010 regular season. Both figures are well below the high of 94.5 percent set in 2004, the year Miami and Virginia Tech joined the league.
Wake Forest and Virginia Tech are the only ACC teams whose stadiums have been 100 percent filled ? or better.
Only three schools have shown significant improvement in attendance: Wake Forest, Maryland and Florida State. At five ACC schools ? Boston College, Duke, Georgia Tech, Miami and North Carolina ? the stands are markedly emptier than they were last year.
B1G Rk. Nat'l Rk. Team Avg. Attend. % Capacity Total Attend. Total gms
1 1 Michigan 112,179 102.07 897,431 8
2 2 Ohio State 105,231 102.84 736,618 7
3 4 Penn State 101,427 95.17 709,991 7
4 12 Nebraska 85,267 105.15 596,871 7
5 15 Wisconsin 79,813 99.37 558,692 7
6 20 Michigan State 74,078 98.76 518,545 7
7 21 Iowa 70,585 100 494,095 7
8 42 Illinois 49,548 81.67 396,380 8
9 49 Minnesota 47,714 93.92 333,996 7
10 51 Purdue 42,225 72.36 316,574 7
11 58 Indiana 41,380 78.18 248,282 6
12 70 Northwestern 33,442 70.96 200,649 6
