The Pac had long been considering the Utah/Colorado combo. Its just when they saw a Pac 16 idea, they went after it. Utah joining CU was no surprise.

(08-18-2014 11:04 PM)Transic_nyc Wrote:  Regions and school profile are the key indicators. The East, Midwest and Pacific West are more elitist in outlook, whereas schools in the plains and deep South (with some exceptions) lean towards populism. The most prestigious private schools are, by nature, elitist. Whether it is religious vocation (Notre Dame, BYU), liberal arts (Brown) or academic mission (MIT), their main point is to exclude those applications who don't meet what they want.

Public schools have to comply with state and federal laws. Ironically, because of this distinction, the goal of the presidents have been to associate with those who are most like themselves. The Big Ten and SEC look for flagship schools that gain them new revenues, as well as keep within the parameters of the conference profile. Therefore, schools that are supposed to be created for the general public become more elitist with the passage of time.

Add the west Appalachian Spine to the "populist" crowd, but some of that is also a function of the wealth of the State. Some states literally are not economically and politically positioned to support a major public research university, let alone two or three.

Academics are really a smokescreen for the social limits of the "club"

(08-20-2014 12:24 PM)bullet Wrote:  The Pac had long been considering the Utah/Colorado combo. Its just when they saw a Pac 16 idea, they went after it. Utah joining CU was no surprise.

Utah/CU to the PAC was in the works in mid 2009, and Utah admin thought it was all but a done deal. Then the slow crawl of realignment suddenly jumped into high gear, and larger shifts such as the potential dissolution of the BigXII came into play. A very nervous time for Utah admin who thought they were in, but now were uncertain.

The Big West is comprised of four UC's, four Cal State's and Hawaii. You could certainly do far worse academically than that grouping. UC San Diego asked for an invite in the recent past and they would only add to the strong academic profile.

Having said that, based on the OP's three categories I would say the BW is actually C. On the one hand, there apparently is no way we would ever add Grand Canyon. However, the conference briefly brought back Boise and their academics are not exactly up to par either.