Last Friday’s UW athletic board meeting began on a gleeful note. Athletic Director Barry Alvarez reported that the Big Ten conference would allow football games to be played after Thanksgiving next season, which means the Badgers will be able to fit in a bye week and the state’s deer hunters will have a dilemma on their hands. The Finance Committee reported that the athletic department will pull in more than $70 million in 2007, a new record.
But then the meeting hit a snag. Jeremi Suri, an associate professor of history, turned up the heat on board chair Walter Dickey over a letter signed by Dickey, Alvarez and UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley on Nov. 2. The letter set forth the UW’s position on the Big Ten Network, which would broadcast the following day’s football game against Ohio State.