RE: Does any school get B1G invite without AAU status?
Here's another way to look at the AAU - Academics requirement. The B1G is primarily focused on research institutions. If AAU status is not a prerequisite - if great academics alone were sufficient - what non-AAU schools would the B1G consider.
US News ranks graduate engineering programs, which is one of the fundamental research areas for universities. While that may be a bit narrow (other STEM programs and medical research would be important too), it provides an interesting way to compare B1G programs with others. Here are the B1G rankings and the rankings for the Big 12 and ACC. Every B1G school with an engineering program (Indiana has none) is in the top 100, with 10 in the top 50 and 7 in the top 25:
US News Graduate School Engineering rankings (including ties)
B1G
Purdue (6), Illinois (6), Michigan (6), Wisconsin (14), Northwestern (21), Maryland (23), Penn. St. (25), Minnesota (28), Ohio State (32), Michigan State (49), Rutgers (56), Iowa (63), Nebraska (90)
Big 12
Texas (10), Iowa State (43), Kansas (90), Kansas State (94), Texas Tech (94), Oklahoma (99), West Virginia (107), Baylor (117)
ACC
Georgia Tech (6), Virginia Tech (21), Duke (28), NC State (28), Virginia (39), Pitt (43), Notre Dame (49), Clemson (71), Syracuse (74), North Carolina (83), Miami (111).
A couple interesting points stand out. In the Big 12, neither Kansas nor Oklahoma are great. They are both at about the Nebraska level and would come in at the bottom of the B1G engineering schools. That won't help their cause in getting an invitation.
In the ACC, Virginia Tech and NC State actually rank significantly higher than their in-state rivals Virginia and North Carolina. UVA and UNC have always been speculated as the B1G's targets in the ACC, but if they are not available, VTech and NC St. would seem to fit in well academically too. Could an east coast expansion of the B1G with VTech, NC State and Georgia Tech be a possibility?
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