Joe Paterno says the Big Ten should expand.

Again.

His comments about conference expansion not being his call should be coming soon.

Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno speaks with media in Fogelsville, Pa., before the "Evening With Joe" event on Wednesday, May 27, 2009.

The month of May opened with Paterno, who has been coaching football at Penn State since about the time the sport was invented, suggesting that the Big Ten Conference should add one more school to get to 12 (insert jokes about places of higher education being unable to count here). That would allow the conference to host a championship game in football.

Which schools should be added? Either Syracuse, Pittsburgh or Rutgers, according to JoePa.

Not long after Paterno made his comments, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said there are no plans to expand and no one is in a hurry to do so. Paterno then backed off his statement, saying he was the wrong person to talk to.

So what did he do on Wednesday? While at an alumni event, he told reporters he’d like to see the Big Ten expand, with either Syracuse, Pitt or Rutgers getting on board. And he also said there was one school that shouldn’t be invited: Notre Dame.

“There’s some pressure, I would suppose, to maybe go back to Notre Dame and ask again, which I would not be happy with,” Paterno said. “I think they’ve had their chance.”

So did JoePa forget about the last couple of weeks? Probably. He is 82.

Does he not realize that this is 2009, not 1959? The head coach of a Division I-A football program can no longer say anything to anyone about anything controversial and not have it become a national story, especially members of the media.

Would Paterno really not want to see Notre Dame added as the 12th team just because the Irish declined once? Probably. He’s been bitter toward Pitt since the school opted to join the Big East in basketball in the early 1980s. That’s something he hasn’t forgotten. At least, not yet.

Tags: Big Ten, college football, Jim Delany, Joe Paterno, Notre Dame, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse