Conference Academics

N

NickDanger

2,500+ Posts
Why does this subject even come up? Conferences are SPORTS conferences and athletes are held to vastly different standards. If the Big 12 (or whatever you guys call it now) were to add Harvard, Yale and Princeton would it suddenly make the professor at UT better?
 
It doesn't smell as bad as the horse turds that get thrown, but it's still silly. Like Tech is so revered academically? Whatever. Get over it. It's not a reason to align SPORTS conferences.
 
Ask the B1G they make much more from their academic association in research dollars than from their athletics. Big difference in getting literally hundreds of millions in research bucks and even the most profitable athletic department.
 
That post was a little difficult to understand. From a perspective associated with your wording. Please explain more.
 
Re: Big difference in getting literally hundreds of millions in research bucks and even the most profitable athletic department.

^^^^^
EXACTLY!!!!! But only the "it's more than sports" crowd (thin as it may be) gets it.
 
I've reread your post several times and I THINK I understand what your answer is, but there can't be that much of a difference between being associated with the big 12 schools and the SEC or Big 10 can there? Doesn't UT stand on its own? How does research money get "shared" among athletic conferences?

I would think Georgia would be the academic crown jewel of the SEC and would consider it on ABOUT the same level as UT (no research done by me), but I can't see how the actual work done by the various schools, as opposed to football, wouldn't be the actual key.
 
Not so for GA; GA Tech, but they are a late-comer, along with an almost dropped (thanks to Gov. Good Hair) friend on the Brazos.

AAU Membership (Year of admission shown in parentheses - founded 1900)

Public (34)

University of Arizona (1985)
University at Buffalo, The State University of New York (1989)
University of California, Berkeley (1900)
University of California, Davis (1996)
University of California, Irvine (1996)
University of California, Los Angeles (1974)
University of California, San Diego (1982)
University of California, Santa Barbara (1995)
University of Colorado at Boulder (1966)
University of Florida (1985)
Georgia Institute of Technology (2010)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1908)
Indiana University Bloomington (1909)
University of Iowa (1909)
Iowa State University of Science and Technology (1958)
University of Kansas (1909)
University of Maryland, College Park (1969)
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1900)
Michigan State University (1964)
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (1908)
University of Missouri (1908)
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (1989)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1922)
The Ohio State University (1916)
University of Oregon (1969)
The Pennsylvania State University (1958)
University of Pittsburgh (1974)
Purdue University (1958)
Stony Brook University (2001)
University of Texas at Austin (1929)
Texas A&M University (2001)
University of Virginia (1904)
University of Washington (1950)
University of Wisconsin–Madison (1900)

Private (25)

Brandeis University (1985)
Brown University (1933)
California Institute of Technology (1934)
Carnegie Mellon University (1982)
Case Western Reserve University (1969)
University of Chicago (1900)
Columbia University (1900)
Cornell University (1900)
Duke University (1938)
Emory University (1995)
Harvard University (1900)
Johns Hopkins University (1900)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1934)
New York University (1950)
Northwestern University (1917)
University of Pennsylvania (1900)
Princeton University (1900)
Rice University (1985)
University of Rochester (1941)
University of Southern California (1969)
Stanford University (1900)
Tulane University (1958)
Vanderbilt University (1950)
Washington University in St. Louis (1923)
Yale University (1900)
 
Not sure where it was posted I think an Omaha paper but Perlman said the biggest change since moving to Big10 was the amount of research $$$ from the other Big10 univ far exceeded the sports revenue.

College Presidents and BOR make the decision so academics matter.
 
This sounds like it should be a conversation with someone in the know instead of a bbs exchange because I'm unsure how all of this works and I'm sure it is a lot of trouble to type it out for me to understand.
 
Someone mentioned the Big 10's CIC in a thread a while back, and I looked into it out of curiosity. Overall I thought it was overblown, as it appears to be more of a research marketing effort than actual research. The CIC doesn't actually bring much in the way of research revenue, and there aren't very many collaborative research projects among Big 10 schools. In fact the CIC is responsible for helping put together just as many collaborative research projects with schools from outside the Big 10 as inside it including Iowa State, Cal State, UNC, LSU, North Dakota St, Georgia Tech, Tennessee, and even UT-Austin (see appendix of this report: The Link ). Relative to their total research budgets of $7 billion, the couple of million for which the CIC can claim credit is a drop in the bucket.

The CIC does add some value, of course. They have some interesting initiatives including conferences/networking for researchers, a joint library project, shared coursework, and group purchases to get better deals on equipment and supplies. But it's quite a stretch to say that conference affiliation brings in more research dollars than academic dollars.

Here's their latest annual report: The Link
 
Per the Nebraska Fact Book 2011

Research $$ increased from $190M in 2009 to $214 in 2011 with a June budget year.

$24M increase in a down economy.
 
To the casual sports fan, academics don't matter. To anyone that graduated from the schools it matters a tremendous amount.

The AAU is one measure and a good one. The research dollars are even better. Penn State is another good example. Penn State was an AAU school before joining the Big 1G but it has grown immensely in research dollars and academic reputation since doing so. There is very real value in being affiliated with a more prestigious conference and Texas may well end up taking a hit with the disparity in academics with them and the rest of the B12 growing. If the SEC adds Mizzou and WVU or Louisville is added to the Big 12 the SEC will be far ahead academically. Vandy is an elite school and Florida and A&M are in the same category (if perhaps very slightly below) Texas academically. Mizzou adds a 4th AAU school and Georgia is almost certain to be added soon because it is far better than many AAU schools. Most of the SEC sits in the 60-100 range academically with really only 2 "bad" academic schools in Ole Miss and Miss State (though they are better than Tech).

The key is the direction things are going. That is one more reason why I don't see Texas staying in the B12 for very long. Texas is currently #13 amongst public schools and #43 amongst National schools. If it were to drop 10 spots or so (which can happen very easily as the competition is fierce) the academics will go nuts and the pressure on Powers and the BoR to fix it will be immense. In the end the money from athletics is small potatoes compared to research and academics and more importantly the value of the 450k alumni of Texas degree is affected. Trading 2 AAU schools for 2 Non AAU schools (one of which is absolutely horrific academically) is going to have consequences.
 
Conf affiliation isn't everything but it matters. Penn State went from $137 million in research dollars in 1990 to $447 million in 2009. Was joining the Big 10 the sole reason? No, but it certainly didn't hurt. Reputation matters and conference affiliation affects reputation. Certainly a school wants to be seen as trying to affiliate with other top Universities and not in the other direction. Conference affiliation goes beyond athletics.
 
So why is it that schools can't or don't sufficiently partner academically with schools outside of their sports conferences?
 
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