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What did Washington fans REALLY think about the decision to join the Big Ten?
I filed some FOIAs to find out...and learned even more.
Matt Brown
November 17, 2023
Good morning, and thanks for your continued support of Extra Points.
Way back in September, University of Washington president Ana Mari Cauce gave an expansive interview about the school’s decision to join the Big Ten to On Montlake, an independent newsletter covering UW athletics. The very first question in that interview really stuck with me:
How would you describe the reaction to the Big Ten move from the university community?
I think there’s certainly some sadness. There’s no question we are very proud to have been part of Pac-12 history. Change is always difficult. But I’ll be honest — the number of emails and etc. that I’ve gotten saying, ‘congratulations, thank you so much for doing this’ … when I parked downstairs (at Saturday’s game), a couple of folks who are some of our biggest, biggest supporters said, ‘thank you so much.’ It’s been generally very positive.
So that day, I decided to file an Open Records Request for all of the emails sent to President Cauce concerning the realignment decision, as well as internal communications. I wanted to understand what fans actually thought immediately after the dissolution of the modern Pac-12. I wanted to understand what senior UW officials were telling each other as everything unfolded.
The university sent me over 240 pages of emails. Here’s some of what I’ve learned.
President Cauce was correct, many fans wrote to her and either encouraged her to join the Big Ten, or to thank her for making the decision. Like this message, from a 2003 graduate:
or this email
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