The Big Ten is for more than just sports, Charles Franklin, professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin, said.
Franklin collaborated with colleagues from eight of the 11 schools in the conference to conduct its first ever presidential poll last month. The Big Ten Battleground Poll released its second round of data online and via television Thursday.
The new poll was created to showcase the academic prowess of the Big Ten, Franklin said.
The poll showed Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama holding an 11-point lead in Pennsylvania and a nine-point lead overall.
Five hundred sixty-six registered Pennsylvania voters were randomly polled for the Pennsylvania results. The margin of error for the Pennsylvania poll was 4 percentage points and the margin of error for the national poll was 3 percentage points.
September's results showed a statistical dead heat, both in the state and nationally, between Obama and John McCain, the Republican candidate.
"The Big Ten has some of the biggest and best political science departments in the country. It was a scandal that we weren't doing anything like this for the election," Franklin said.
The importance of the Big Ten states, which combine for 117 electoral votes, cannot be underestimated, he said.
"The Big Ten contains some of the most competitive states in the election," Franklin said. "Candidates have spent a lot of time campaigning and a lot of money advertising throughout these eight states."
Political science professor Michael Berkman served as Penn State's liaison to the project and stressed the importance of Pennsylvania's 21 electoral votes in the upcoming election.
"John McCain has really invested a lot in Pennsylvania," Berkman said. "Rather than playing defense in some other states, he's going after Pennsylvania."
Berkman added if McCain were to lose in Pennsylvania, he would have a hard time winning the presidency, while Barack Obama has "other routes to the election."
Some demographic factors and a sense of necessity have spurred McCain's efforts in the state, Berkman said.
But Franklin pointed to recent economic struggles as an "overwhelming" boost to Obama's support.
"On September 14th, McCain was leading. But on the 15th, Lehman Brothers collapsed, and on September 16th, AIG went under. And since then, it's been all Obama," Franklin said. "In September, we saw virtually the entire Big Ten as a battleground. Now Obama is clearly winning the Big Ten."
Still, student groups shrug off the impact of polling data.
"Results like these are great, but here and throughout Pennsylvania, we're not really interested in the numbers right now," said Zachary Zabel, president of Penn State Students for Barack Obama. "If anything, it's just going to make us more motivated to get out the vote and make sure everyone votes."
Members of Penn State Students for John McCain were skeptical of the poll results.
"For a poll like that, the methodology isn't as tried and true as for some of the national polls, or even for the internals," Andrew Natalo, president of Penn State Students for John McCain, said. "We see the race as much tighter."
