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Post by OscarWildeCat, Admin on Jul 25, 2021 4:34:18 GMT -6
UGA football writer Graham Coffee posted
Text from an SEC source with knowledge of the inner workings of the league office…
“A couple more dominoes fall and we’re in a situation where the SEC could become its own division. More teams have reached out than what’s being reported. 20-24 within the realm of possibility.”
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Post by OscarWildeCat, Admin on Jul 25, 2021 4:36:06 GMT -6
UGA football writer Graham Coffee posted Text from an SEC source with knowledge of the inner workings of the league office… “A couple more dominoes fall and we’re in a situation where the SEC could become its own division. More teams have reached out than what’s being reported. 20-24 within the realm of possibility.” RC, Hopefully any more additions will hold membership in the AAU, and finish in the top 25 in multiple sports.
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Post by rc on Jul 25, 2021 11:15:04 GMT -6
That would be great. It might also help solve the "pay for play" dilemma. 20 to 30 super programs competing at a different level. AAU is certainly a good indication of quality but it is not perfect, with some historic members no longer as important as they once were, and a few hold outs. For some reason I always admired, to a degree, the Ivy league. I wish there was a similar conference in which ACU had a home but hopefully that is in the future at some point -- call this dreaming. It would be a quality collection of universities that competed across the board in sports with a balance of prestige in areas of the university experience. To me that is the greatest value universities can achieve for their students.
I have only a vague experience with SEC schools, and that was some years ago I was encouraged to become the chair of a science department at one of them and was quite surprised at the relatively minor role that academics in that department played at an otherwise large university. I would characterize that university as having an imbalance of sorts. Needless to say, I turned them down, but must admit the small hillside housing overlooking the campus was beautiful. The other was that faded out orange colored one and the burnt orange in me could not handle that one -- but it was a basketball powerhouse at the time.
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Post by OscarWildeCat, Admin on Jul 25, 2021 12:14:46 GMT -6
That would be great. It might also help solve the "pay for play" dilemma. 20 to 30 super programs competing at a different level. AAU is certainly a good indication of quality but it is not perfect, with some historic members no longer as important as they once were, and a few hold outs. For some reason I always admired, to a degree, the Ivy league. I wish there was a similar conference in which ACU had a home but hopefully that is in the future at some point -- call this dreaming. It would be a quality collection of universities that competed across the board in sports with a balance of prestige in areas of the university experience. To me that is the greatest value universities can achieve for their students. I have only a vague experience with SEC schools, and that was some years ago I was encouraged to become the chair of a science department at one of them and was quite surprised at the relatively minor role the academics that department played at an otherwise large university. I would characterize that university as having an imbalance of sorts. Needless to say, I turned them down, but must admit the small hillside housing overlooking the campus was beautiful. The other was that faded out orange colored one and the burnt orange in me could not handle that one -- but it was a basketball powerhouse at the time. I share your wish for ACU to join a conference with like minded institutions- Private universities with endowments in the half billion dollar range that offer FCS level, mid major D1 athletics. That combination is something of a rarity though, particularly in our geographic region.
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Post by buckeyecat on Jul 25, 2021 14:19:20 GMT -6
While I agree that AAU membership is not the final word on academic quality, it is telling that all of the members of the Big except Nebraska are present members. All members of the Pac 12 except Arizona State are members. The ACC members are Virginia, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, and Duke. The SEC has only three members, Missouri, Vanderbilt, and Florida. As mentioned before, the Big 12 has three members, UT, Iowa State, and the University of Kansas. The state of Texas has three members, The University of Texas at Austin (1929) Rice (1985), and Texas A&M (2001). The state of California.has 9 members, and of course, the entire Ivy League are members.
As a follower of the BIG conference practically all of my life, I would say they are almost never proactive, and conservative, as shown by their football style, (except one glaring successful exception), and happy with the status quo (they are the richest conference as far as revenue is concerned). It will be interesting to see how they react if at all. The same goes for the Pac 12. The intriguing conference is the AAC. They will be happy to merge with the remnants of the Big 12, possibly elevating themselves to Power 4 status.
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Post by OscarWildeCat, Admin on Jul 25, 2021 15:00:37 GMT -6
While I agree that AAU membership is not the final word on academic quality, it is telling that all of the members of the Big except Nebraska are present members. All members of the Pac 12 except Arizona State are members. The ACC members are Virginia, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, and Duke. The SEC has only three members, Missouri, Vanderbilt, and Florida. As mentioned before, the Big 12 has three members, UT, Iowa State, and the University of Kansas. The state of Texas has three members, The University of Texas at Austin (1929) Rice (1985), and Texas A&M (2001). The state of California.has 9 members, and of course, the entire Ivy League are members. As a follower of the BIG conference practically all of my life, I would say they are almost never proactive, and conservative, as shown by their football style, (except one glaring successful exception), and happy with the status quo (they are the richest conference as far as revenue is concerned). It will be interesting to see how they react if at all. The same goes for the Pac 12. The intriguing conference is the AAC. They will be happy to merge with the remnants of the Big 12, possibly elevating themselves to Power 4 status. The SEC has 4 members. The three you listed plus Texas A&M. UT will be add a fifth. If OU joins both the Sooners and UGA will have more funded research than many members of the AAU. My apologies. I’m a little defensive about the SEC.
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Post by rc on Jul 25, 2021 18:04:46 GMT -6
UGA and GTech are both quite strong. Georgia Tech, as we all know, is one of our key ACU research partners, plus their chair of Nuclear Engineering is a prior Longhorn friend. There are some SEC schools that are not much different from the weaker Big 12 schools. My problem is I am so out of touch with the current prestige level of Universities (and these thing change.) My glasses are clouded with too many decades of old history. I struggle with trying to decide which of my by-lines under my CatChal moniker is most accurate. I do know ACU's undergraduate research ranking is higher than any WAC school's.
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Post by buckeyecat on Jul 25, 2021 18:53:16 GMT -6
No problem Oscar. The AAU is a club with all that entails. There are several universities that have strong research programs that one would think should be members, among them are Georgia, Oklahoma, Arizona State, and others. The University of Arizona is a member probably due to its Astronomy program and medical schools. As we all know, with any club including athletic conferences, and social clubs, new membership is determined by the present members not just an institution’s qualifications.
As has been alluded to by RC, it would be great if we could be in an association with other academically strong undergraduate institutions whose students can get into any graduate or professional program, and whose own graduate programs while limited in number, will be excellent in nature. There are many FCS schools of this type.
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Post by OscarWildeCat, Admin on Jul 26, 2021 3:35:53 GMT -6
No problem Oscar. The AAU is a club with all that entails. There are several universities that have strong research programs that one would think should be members, among them are Georgia, Oklahoma, Arizona State, and others. The University of Arizona is a member probably due to its Astronomy program and medical schools. As we all know, with any club including athletic conferences, and social clubs, new membership is determined by the present members not just an institution’s qualifications. As has been alluded to by RC, it would be great if we could be in an association with other academically strong undergraduate institutions whose students can get into any graduate or professional program, and whose own graduate programs while limited in number, will be excellent in nature. There are many FCS schools of this type.[/b] Nationally, yes. There are three conferences comprised of academic peers- the Ivy, the near-ivy Patriot league (Georgetown, Lehigh. and such) and the Pioneer (San Diego, Dayton). Like the Ivy, the Pioneer does not offer athletic scholarships. There are also schools similar to ours in various other conferences ( Elon, Mercer, Furman, Wofford) I couldn’t identify a group of peer institutions within our geographic region though.
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Post by buckeyecat on Jul 26, 2021 7:39:52 GMT -6
On a lighter side, has anyone maybe considered that UT’s maneuvering is because they want to get away from Baylor and TCU who have done considerably better than them over the last ten years? I do feel for both institutions who have put all of this effort in building their programs into national relevance to only be consigned to purgatory.
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Post by rc on Jul 26, 2021 13:21:14 GMT -6
No problem Oscar. The AAU is a club with all that entails. There are several universities that have strong research programs that one would think should be members, among them are Georgia, Oklahoma, Arizona State, and others. The University of Arizona is a member probably due to its Astronomy program and medical schools. As we all know, with any club including athletic conferences, and social clubs, new membership is determined by the present members not just an institution’s qualifications. As has been alluded to by RC, it would be great if we could be in an association with other academically strong undergraduate institutions whose students can get into any graduate or professional program, and whose own graduate programs while limited in number, will be excellent in nature. There are many FCS schools of this type.[/b] Nationally, yes. There are three conferences comprised of academic peers- the Ivy, the near-ivy Patriot league (Georgetown, Lehigh. and such) and the Pioneer (San Diego, Dayton). Like the Ivy, the Pioneer does not offer athletic scholarships. There are also schools similar to ours in various other conferences ( Elon, Mercer, Furman, Wofford) I couldn’t identify a group of peer institutions within our geographic region though. [/quote]
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Post by rc on Jul 26, 2021 13:29:54 GMT -6
I know this is a dream but such a unique conference as a home for ACU would pretty well cap off the status or way we think of our university. There are no suitable geographical neighbors, as you point out. But if ACU could be in such a distinguished conference, and hover in the loftier areas both athletically and academically, our stock would soar. Most on this board know my love of the sciences and mathematics but casting aside all civility, you may not know our old saying... "We just want a football team the physics department can be proud of." I deeply apologize for that but we said it to each other for years. Don't judge me too harshly.
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Post by rc on Jul 26, 2021 16:37:29 GMT -6
I guess it is official now. The University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas released a joint statement Monday that’s seen as the schools’ first official step toward leaving the Big 12 Conference and joining the Southeastern Conference.
N.B. Reports from other university presidents who participated in the recent meeting with OU and UT are that the meeting was cordial and constructive. Who knows what that means. The Big 12 has an unsolvable problem. It cannot offer UT and OU more than other members, and there are no comparable schools that could replace the two that would depart. I fear the move to the SEC will cause a domino effect across the other power conferences and something entirely new lies ahead for college athletics. Which schools can conferences add that are huge boosts? Notre Dame is a prize but the BYUs are not going to bring the clout of the big boys.
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Post by Cap'n Cattitude on Jul 26, 2021 18:10:13 GMT -6
My OU friends are sure it’s happening. The curious think is how they cut out TT and Okie St.
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Post by buckeyecat on Jul 26, 2021 18:51:34 GMT -6
Don’t forget the band as well as Biology and Chemistry.
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