Michigan and Michigan State have always held a unique relationship within the Big Ten. But did the Wolverines try to keep the Spartans out of the conference? Well, that’s complicated, ChrisVannini writes. Inside the realignment rivalry ⤵️
athletic director Lynn St. John did some secret back-channel lobbying for Pitt. He considered MSC among the league’s “weak sisters” in a letter to the commissioner, referring to second-tier schools in the conference like Iowa, Indiana and Purdue.
“They dislike our Jenison … but why should we have to do like a hell of a lot of them do — pay athletes under the table,” Munn said, according to the Detroit Free Press. He added, “I don’t believe we’ll get anywhere by apple polishing. If they want us, they’ll ask us now.” So when MSC discovered a post-war scholarship drive for Michigan athletes in the late 1940s not dissimilar to MSC’s Jenison Awards, Hannah told Morrill, who informed Minnesota’s athletic director about it, according to Young. Tired of the hypocrisy and Michigan’s heavy influence over the conference, the Gophers wanted to force a Big Ten decision on Michigan State, one that Aigler couldn’t avoid. .
“We know well that without your help we would not have succeeded, and we shall not forget it,” Hannah wrote to Morrill.Even at the end, Aigler made sure it wouldn’t be so easy. According to Young, Aigler proposed an amendment before the final vote: Michigan State would only join the Big Ten after a three-person investigation of the school to make sure it complied with Big Ten rules.
According to Young, no Big Ten athletic directors submitted any major infractions by MSC, so the committee hired a private investigator to interview former MSC Jenison Award athletes. Young claims the investigation showed MSC was “essentially in compliance,” but coaches didn’t want to compete against MSC, which still had some Jenison Award athletes playing. As a result, MSU officially joined the Big Ten in 1950, but football didn’t join until 1953.
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