When I first saw reports of a private plan for a Joe Paterno statue in downtown State College, Pa., I instantly thought of the cult of personality. Make no mistake about it: The power of Penn State’s former football coach remains large, engulfing a school, a city, a state and a region if not the entire country. That’s what happens when you’re head coach of a program for 45 years and win more than 400 games along with two national championships.

Our colleagues over at ESPN recently published a fun-filled article listing the biggest college pipelines of NFL talent at specific positions. Coming in at No. 5 on the list is Wisconsin’s talented group of offensive linemen.

Talent evaluation is a dicey proposition. Even with all of the resources that NFL teams have to learn about college players—the NFL Combine, interviews, on-campus workouts, an army of scouts, reels of video—teams still can mess up a pick or stumble into a pleasant surprise.

Northwestern’s union vote will take place on Friday. Hard to really tell what will happen, but results of the vote may not be known for months as the NLRB hears the school’s appeal of it the players are employees. In the meantime, NU is taking no chances, as it has put on a full-court “no union” campaign.