If you feel like reading something non COVID-19 related. An interesting article came out this morning detailing the voting process for adding Penn State to the Big Ten thirty years ago. Northwestern was an integral part of the decision.
The final vote for including PSU wasn't unanimous. It was 7-3 which was the minimum result required. Michigan, Indiana, and Michigan State were the objectors.
However, the preliminary vote was 5-5. Northwestern being one of the "no" votes.
Northwestern president Arnold Weber had absorbed fears from many on his board of trustees that PSU’s inclusion could well mean NU’s banishment.
Donna Shalala, the Wisconsin president at the time, related Northwestern’s trepidation: “In many ways, even though they had decent sports, they did not then have competitive football. And he was afraid we were going to throw them out and just have nothing but public universities. Northwestern was the only private university.”
“Arnie Weber was the key.” It didn’t hurt that Weber was not only an Illinois graduate but something of a free spirit as university presidents go. An economics major at UI, as an avocation he edited a long-forgotten risqué humor magazine called Shaft created by none other than soon-to-be Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner. Weber died just three weeks ago on Aug. 20, a month shy of his 91st birthday.
“Northwestern was paranoid because they thought Penn State was being brought in to the Big Ten in order to kick them out. Arnie’s trustees I’m sure were telling him: ‘Don’t mess with this. It’s not going to be good for us.’”
"We cut a deal. We would guarantee [Northwestern] that we would not allow another school in after Penn State – for I don’t remember exactly how many years.
"But Arnie was a good friend of mine. We had to assure him that we would not take another school in. He was worried about Notre Dame, too.
“Tell you the truth, no one was thinking about throwing Northwestern out. We simply wanted to add Penn State to get the Eastern media market. And because Penn State looked like us. It was a big public [university] with lots of sports, nationally competitive.”
And because of the expansion into Eastern television markets, the Big Ten became a more valuable product to cable suppliers and networks.
“And Arnie bought the deal. It was like old-fashioned politics. We walked out, we negotiated the deal, we went back in and we voted.”
How Penn State nearly ended up in ACC: Of Knight and Bo and which Big Ten schools voted “no” in 1990
The final vote for including PSU wasn't unanimous. It was 7-3 which was the minimum result required. Michigan, Indiana, and Michigan State were the objectors.
However, the preliminary vote was 5-5. Northwestern being one of the "no" votes.
Northwestern president Arnold Weber had absorbed fears from many on his board of trustees that PSU’s inclusion could well mean NU’s banishment.
Donna Shalala, the Wisconsin president at the time, related Northwestern’s trepidation: “In many ways, even though they had decent sports, they did not then have competitive football. And he was afraid we were going to throw them out and just have nothing but public universities. Northwestern was the only private university.”
“Arnie Weber was the key.” It didn’t hurt that Weber was not only an Illinois graduate but something of a free spirit as university presidents go. An economics major at UI, as an avocation he edited a long-forgotten risqué humor magazine called Shaft created by none other than soon-to-be Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner. Weber died just three weeks ago on Aug. 20, a month shy of his 91st birthday.
“Northwestern was paranoid because they thought Penn State was being brought in to the Big Ten in order to kick them out. Arnie’s trustees I’m sure were telling him: ‘Don’t mess with this. It’s not going to be good for us.’”
"We cut a deal. We would guarantee [Northwestern] that we would not allow another school in after Penn State – for I don’t remember exactly how many years.
"But Arnie was a good friend of mine. We had to assure him that we would not take another school in. He was worried about Notre Dame, too.
“Tell you the truth, no one was thinking about throwing Northwestern out. We simply wanted to add Penn State to get the Eastern media market. And because Penn State looked like us. It was a big public [university] with lots of sports, nationally competitive.”
And because of the expansion into Eastern television markets, the Big Ten became a more valuable product to cable suppliers and networks.
“And Arnie bought the deal. It was like old-fashioned politics. We walked out, we negotiated the deal, we went back in and we voted.”
How Penn State nearly ended up in ACC: Of Knight and Bo and which Big Ten schools voted “no” in 1990
