A brief preface: The University of Chicago used to be a Big Ten Division I school with a legitimate football team and everything. Under the guidance of President Robert Maynard Hutchins, the U of C instituted the Core Curriculum, sold its Big Ten membership to Northwestern, and tore down its football stadium to build a library. Football was resurrected at Chicago later and is now a well-established part of our Division III athletics program.So, today I met someone from (The) Ohio State University who informed me of an awesome myth. It seems that there is an ongoing informal campaign on the Ohio State, U of Michigan, and Michigan State campuses to make a collective donation to the University of Chicago in order to build the school a new stadium and buy back its Big Ten/Division I membership. (I have yet to confirm this, but she claimed that the U of C has a standing invitation back into the Big Ten as a former member.)The reason for this campaign? Because of Chicago’s standing invitation and Big Ten bylaws, if Chicago were to rejoin, the newest current member would be ejected: Penn State, a bitter rival of all three schools and a damn good football team. Hah!I really hope it is not so they have some poor lowly team to beat up on. (Ed–Insert some Northwestern crack here. I’m bigger than that. No you are not. Hey Ed–if that’s really your name–aren’t you ripping off Dan Drezner’s “Ed” character? …[crickets]…no…[crickets]...)