Nebraska falls short in Big Ten
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Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, left and Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne.
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Less than a week after Big Ten leaders chided reporters and sports fans for overlooking the importance of academics in college football conference expansion, the Big Ten introduced its newest member in Nebraska, which will become the worst-performing academic member of the conference, according to several academic measures.
Following a June 6 meeting in Chicago of the Big Ten's Council of Presidents/Chancellors, Michigan State president Lou Anna Simon, the council's chairwoman, told reporters that academics was purposely at the top of a list of four criteria that guided the Big Ten's expansion search.
"I've facetiously said that at the start of this process, if we had given fifth-graders the criteria, the list of institutions would be essentially the list of institutions that have been bandied about for quite a while by [the media] with much more sophisticated analysis of the sense of fit," Dr. Simon said. "But as I look at your analysis, academics hasn't been much of the conversation. That's an important component of this."
Nebraska scores poorly academically when compared with its peers, according to the Center for Measuring University Performance, which compares the country's top research institutions. The center publishes an annual report, comparing universities on nine different criteria, such as research expenditures, doctorates awarded and endowment size.
When compared with their public or private peers, four of the 12 Big Ten schools -- Illinois, Michigan, Northwestern and Wisconsin -- were ranked among the top 25 schools nationally in all nine categories, and each current member ranked among the top 25 in at least four categories.
Nebraska was not ranked among the top 25 in any category.
Penn State University was ranked in eight categories. The University of Pittsburgh, a Big East member long considered a candidate for Big Ten expansion, was ranked in all nine.
Other schools rumored for Big Ten expansion fared better than Nebraska in the center's analysis. Maryland was ranked in four categories while Rutgers and Notre Dame were ranked in three.
First Published June 15, 2010 12:00 am
