Penn State’s transition to Big Ten proves much more tumultuous than Nebraska’s

On July 1, 2011, Tom Osborne's office phone will probably fill up with voicemails congratulating him on Nebraska's first official day as a member of the Big Ten Conference.

It'll be a historic day for NU's athletic director, one that will forever define his post-coaching career legacy. He isn't planning on celebrating much.

"I guess I hope I'm fishing somewhere," Osborne said. "This isn't going to be an earthshaking event.

"We've been working on it long enough now that some of the novelty has worn off."

It'll be a day full of pageantry in Lincoln, one Husker fans have been anticipating for a year and will be celebrating for many more.

Twenty years ago, the leaders of Penn State University never got to enjoy this honeymoon phase. During the 1989-1990 academic year, Penn State shocked its peers and even its own fan base by landing and accepting an invite into the conference.

The offer came after much flirtation and was consummated with a slew of backdoor meetings and dealings between Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany and his conference's presidents.

And the move wasn't a popular one with everyone. Three Big Ten presidents voted "no" to the Nittany Lions. Athletic directors and coaches were furious that they'd been kept out of the loop.

The December 1989 announcement kicked off a three-year-long process to merge an East Coast school, which few Big Ten aficionados appreciated, into a league in which it didn't seem to belong. Resentment was a hurdle Penn State faced from day one.

And yet, today, all involved proudly declare Nebraska's transition into the Big Ten has been a seamless and smooth one. They say it's a perfect fit, exactly what the conference needs.

What changed? The Penn State people who weren't exactly welcomed into the Big Ten say they've witnessed a culture shift. The conference's members appear closer than ever.

But resentment and acceptance issues still linger.

Secrecy and scorn

The biggest reason why Penn State sought Big Ten membership in the late 1980s isn't all that different from the one Nebraska cited in making its switch last summer: stability.

PSU was a member of the Atlantic 10 for every sport but football, which competed independently. That arrangement worked out fine for the school when its football program was thriving — they lost to Oklahoma for the 1985 championship title and won it all the following year against Miami.

By 1988, things weren't so easy. Penn State went 5-6 in a rebuilding year, its first losing season in 49 years. Coach Joe Paterno was already planning his retirement for 1991, at age 65.

PSU administrators needed a way to ensure their athletic department's future financial success in the imminent post-Paterno era. They turned to Jim Delany and the Big Ten.

After all the secret meetings and conversations, the Big Ten's invitation came in December 1989.

The school's membership didn't become official until June 1990, when the conference's 10 presidents voted to make PSU the first school to join the Big Ten since Michigan State in 1949.

Only they didn't all agree on Penn State. A two-thirds majority vote was necessary for inclusion, and the presidents of three schools — reportedly Indiana, Michigan and Michigan State — voted against adding PSU.

Many of the Big Ten's athletic directors and coaches weren't happy, either. They felt blindsided by the move and were stunned to find out such a momentous decision had been made without their input. They put up a fight to prevent the addition.

"I don't know how they will fit in," said Bo Schembechler, Michigan's athletic director, in December 1989. "But you don't add someone to the conference and not consult the people in athletics. That was the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen done.

"I, and most of the other athletic directors in our conference, resent the way it was done, and if I offend some presidents, that's too damn bad."

‘A camping trip'

The move wasn't universally popular with the people of State College, either.

It just didn't seem like the right fit. Penn State fans liked that independence permitted frequent games against East Coast foes like Pittsburgh, Maryland, Temple and Syracuse.

"It was a shock when it was announced that Penn State was joining the Big Ten," Penn State historian Lou Prato said. "College football was different back then — there were a lot of independents, and that really shook it up.

"The biggest transition was probably more for the fans because they stopped playing Eastern teams. The games were against teams we didn't have a rivalry with, and they had to travel a long distance."

The westernmost school in the Big Ten, Minnesota, was nearly 1,500 miles away. For PSU's non-revenue sports, traveling by van or bus was suddenly not feasible. The costs of time and money for all involved emerged as a contentious problem.

And the location issue certainly didn't appeal to Big Ten coaches, either. State College was a small town of less than 39,000 people that isn't located near any major cities.

"Penn State's a camping trip," Indiana basketball coach Bob Knight said at the time. "There is nothing for about 100 miles."

The overwhelming volume of dissent made Delany backpedal a bit. He said Penn State's invitation was actually only "in principle," and he formed a 17-member committee that evaluated the viability of the addition and had the power to cancel the PSU plan.

Once Penn State passed that test and formally joined the Big Ten, the transition was spread out over several years. No PSU teams began competing in the conference until volleyball and 11 others started in the fall of 1991.