You are wrong, sir. PSU did not give up their cherished, treasured, sublime independence, which no one gives a F about anywhere other than ND fans, for whom it has become a fetish typically deified for its own sake, but occasionally defended when under attack as being a totally superior status to enjoy purely on strategic and economic grounds.... they did not do so only because their backs were against the proverbial wall and they were almost insolvent, otherwise they would be happily and preferably 'independent' to this day.
I feel like I can say with absolute certainty, without knowing any insider details, that it was done simply as a reasonable, prudent decision to make, as there is no reason to be averse to conference membership, certainly not a conference like the Big Ten, and that the time had come and they were going to go ahead and make this move, whatever changes it might have on the status quo for PSU that up to that point that they had through sheer time and inertia gotten used to, and was comfortable as an old shoe. And so they joined the Big Ten. And it was a great move for them. Natural move, no downsides really. Win win win all around.
But you insist on portraying it differently, which I think hurts your cause. Don't defend 'independence' on the merits. It makes you look weak, as if you need reassurance, and justification as a particularly sound and superior arrangement for a CFB program to want to have and jealously maintain. Just say that's how we roll at ND, that's how we like to do it, which is true. And never mind what our reasons are, which frankly it'd be better not to get into. And F y'all if you don't like it. You're being honest that way. And it's way more of an alpha move.
