For the most part, Big Ten football is a collection of powerhouse teams: University of Michigan, with 11 national championships and the biggest football stadium in the world; Ohio State University, with five championships and seven Heisman Trophy winners; Penn State, with the nickname “Linebacker U” and the winningest coach in Division I college football history.
But with dismal records and no bowl wins in 60 years, Northwestern seems the odd team out. The Wildcats are the only private school in the conference and the only member with an enrollment of fewer than 20,000. (NU’s is a paltry 8,153.) Between the higher academic standards and the small student body, the ‘Cats are playing from behind every time they take the field. Some have argued that they would do better if they left the league.
It wouldn’t be the first time. The conference has been in a state of flux ever since it was established. Seven schools, including NU and the University of Chicago, founded the league in 1896, and two more joined three years later. Over the next 50 years, the conference was called the Big Nine or the Big Ten depending on which schools left or joined. Michigan dropped out in 1908, later rejoining in 1917. In 1945, the University of Chicago Maroons left the conference entirely, never to return. The Maroons withdrew from the Big Ten because the university decided to de-emphasize athletics. But before the school axed its football program in 1938, even they were better than NU, winning seven conference titles in 25 years.
The Wildcats have won only eight titles in their 102 years in the Big Ten. They’ve been to six bowl games (five since 1995) but won only once: the 1948 Rose Bowl. But can we really secede, and where we would go? NU media officials were unwilling to comment about an issue they considered so far from the realm of possibility. If NU did decide to leave, we could follow University of Notre Dame’s model and play as an independent, making up our own schedule and setting up rivalry games with regional schools, such as the Fighting Irish. The move would put the program in the national spotlight and allow the team to travel across the country. According to Notre Dame Senior Associate Athletic Director John Heisler, increased publicity and flexibility are among the many advantages of being independent. “We can play a few schools in the Big Ten, a couple in the Pac-10, a couple in the Big East, and so on,” he said. “Getting to schools all around the country lets us stay closer to our alumni and improves local recruiting.”
But NU could end up finishing with a worse record if they went independent. Notre Dame plays one of the toughest schedules, including annual games against Michigan, University of Southern California, Boston College and Michigan State. So the ‘Cats probably would look to jump to another conference, a step that is fairly common in Division I college football. In 2004, Miami University, Virginia Tech and Boston College agreed to flee the Big East for the Atlantic Coast Conference. The following year, the Big East responded by luring several schools, including Louisville and DePaul University, from Conference USA.
The latter would probably be the best fit for NU. Conference USA is composed of primarily Midwest schools, and NU could replace the recently departed DePaul. With a 12-team league, however, Conference USA officials might be reluctant to add another school, even a high-profile institution like NU. And most importantly, NU’s Board of Trustees has expressed no desire to leave the Big Ten. Even though the team might win a few more games in another league, donations to the school would probably fall, as enraged alumni and boosters pulled their support for a team no longer in the prestigious Big Ten.
