<p>NURaider is partially right.</p>
<p>President Strotz (70s/mid 80s) thought that sports had nothing to do w/ academia and wanted NU to leave the B10 (Strotz was primarily responsible for the “Dark Ages” in NU sports since under his administration, the university basically starved the athletic dept.).</p>
<p>NU in the mid-80s had some discussion w/ the IL about potentially joining the conference – whereby a series of FB games was scheduled btwn the ‘Cats and IL teams just to see how things would work out.</p>
<p>Strotz never got to put his plan in place (have NU leave the B10) since he suffered a heart attack. His successor, Arnold Weber, saw the folly in Strotz’s plan and had the scheduled games against the IL teams cancelled (all but the Princeton game which couldn’t be rescheduled – NU won, btw, 37-0), since the B10 pumped a lot of $$ into the coffers of the athletic dept. (and one of the conditions for the IL was for NU to pay ALL of the travel costs for IL teams).</p>
<p>While no, the IL never extended an offer, there were discussions about it and a series of FB games scheduled to see how feasible such a thing (travel, etc.) would be.</p>