(02-11-2017 02:44 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(02-11-2017 01:06 PM)nzmorange Wrote:  

(02-11-2017 01:01 PM)bluesox Wrote:  Oklahoma State or Texas tech aren't joining the pac 12 solo. If OU and Texas require it than got to think the pac 12 would gladly accept the package. I mean the pac 12 has Oreg State and Wash State not to mention the Arizona school's, no offense those school's aren't that big of a deal in the academic world for the pac 12 to turn around and be snobby.

IMHO, the PAC is the most top heavy conference. USC, Cal, UCLA, Stanford, and Washington are all elite schools in my mind. The other half of the PAC is significantly below those 5. There really isn't a strong bridge between the two ends of the conference, at least not in my mind. That's why I think that the PAC would be more open to overlooking academics than most people think.

Colorado is very highly rated as well. They are #34 in ARWU, ahead of USC (#49). But there is a big drop after those top 6.

That's driven by research, not actual academics.

I personally don't think that research is even mildly applicable, but even if I'm wrong, there's still a difference between the other 5, which are complete packages, and CU, which happens to place a heavy emphasis on hard sciences.