The key to the reason why Thon was cut by three hours may depend on just one word.

On March 26, Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon overalls announced in a press release: "Penn State President Graham Spanier negotiated with the Big Ten conference, at the request of THON's student leaders, to allow for a blackout of home men's and women's basketball games on THON weekend.

The agreement with athletics officials included a commitment to shorten the window the facility is unavailable for other purposes."

The next day, the university sent out a press release of its own that contained the same paragraph, word for word, except for one -- the agreement was with "university officials," not "athletics officials."

The athletic department has denied requesting that Thon end at 4 p.m. Sunday instead of 7 p.m.

"Athletics' role as far as having Thon moved to the BJC was to secure the building, in terms of the dates," Assistant Athletic Director Jeff Nelson said. "We're not involved in terms of what times the event begins, ends or what the format is."

BJC officials have also denied requesting the cut.

"We were not, nor should we have been, privy to the details of those talks," BJC General Manager Bob Howard said in an e-mail message.

BJC Marketing Manager Bernie Punt said yesterday that there will be no other events on Thon weekend next year.

"We have our event booked Friday, Saturday and Sunday for Thon," he said. "They're going to be taking just about every square foot of our building."

Big Ten conference Associate Director of Communications Robin Jentes would not comment.

"I've just been told that you should speak to Jeff Nelson," she said.

If neither the athletics department nor the BJC nor the Big Ten requested that Thon end early, someone else must have -- and all clues point to the administration.

"All final arrangements to bring Thon to the BJC were made through a cooperative effort between the Thon leaders and the administration at Old Main," Howard said in an e-mail message.

Nelson echoed this statement.

"Anything related to the format, anything of that nature, you would need to talk to someone in the student affairs office," he said.

The unexplained word change in Penn State's press release also suggests that the shortening of the event was the administration's decision.

This is not to say the administration has no right to request that Thon be shortened.

Because the BJC is university property, the administration could legitimately have wanted to leave time for, as Thon 2006 Overall Chairman Evan Jacobs said, a "practice on Sunday night or other revenue-producing events."

But Thon officials still seem to be under the impression that the athletics department was responsible for the time cut.

On a list of frequently asked questions on Thon's Web site, the question "was there a push from the administration to decrease the hours of THON?" is answered as following: "The hour change simply resulted from a compromise that was made with the Big Ten and Athletics in order for us to get a blackout date and be guaranteed use of the facility THON weekend."

Furthermore, if it really was the administration that requested the time cut, the reason seems to become one of want, not need.

The administration might want to allow a practice or "revenue-producing event" on Sunday night, but neither the Big Ten nor the BJC nor athletics requested it as a condition for the agreement.

Spanier wrote in an e-mail message to alumni that Thon could have continued to be 48 hours long if Thon overalls had chosen to keep the event at Rec Hall.

"To be perfectly clear, it would be OK for THON to remain EXACTLY as is in Rec Hall," he wrote.

While the time format could have indeed remained the same in Rec Hall, the size would not have.

Jacobs said Thon overalls had decided before meeting with administrators that if Thon were to remain in Rec Hall, the building's capacity limit would have to be enforced.

"If we wanted to stay in Rec Hall, we would have had to severely cut participation [and] the number of passes allowed on the floor," Jacobs said.

Also, this argument does not address who requested that Thon be shortened as a condition of the move to the Bryce Jordan Center.

Getting a direct answer from the university administration seems to be unlikely.

Vice President for Student Affairs Vicky Triponey was reached in person Sunday and Monday, but she refused to comment and referred all questions to university spokesmen.

University spokesmen are sticking to their press release.

"We put out our story in the press release," university spokesman Bill Mahon said. "The story's done."

Thon 2007 Overall Chairman Mike Funk said that he is planning to meet soon with officials from the university student affairs office and Penn State athletics.

Until then, the answers remain as elusive as a floor pass for the final four hours.