Statefan
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RE: Is the End Game a 40 or so team Super League
(08-10-2021 12:05 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote: I don't buy the superleague occurring at all. Not that nothing is impossible without enough money being thrown at various parties, but I don't have this Armageddon view of the overall structures of the conferences because culture *does* matter.
The Big Ten, for instance, simply isn't looking at conference realignment as a completely football-focused exercise. They have never done so and they never will. Even if they could take schools from the ACC, for instance, its main targets would be the likes of UVA, UNC and/or Georgia Tech as opposed to Florida State and Clemson. From a pure football perspective, the Big Ten would probably be better off staying how it is than taking the other AAU schools that are conceivably available other than USC from the Pac-12 (and of course ND that isn't an AAU school). It's simply a different culture compared to the SEC... and that's OK! In fact, that's what makes the Big Ten schools valuable as overall *institutions* (not just football programs) is that the conference is NOT the SEC. No one in the Big Ten *wants* to be like the SEC.
I pointed this out before, but Apple, Amazon, Google and Microsoft are all tech companies that make a ton of money... but they have *very* different cultures and make money in different ways. That's how I see at least the comparison between the Big Ten and SEC as the top two: they have football power in common (just like the aforementioned companies all have tech in common), but once you get past that, they're simply very different cultures in terms of how they approach things. Now, if you want to say that the Big Ten is hypocritical and they're just as money-grubbing as the SEC, then you won't get an argument from me, but believe me that the veneer of academic respectability truly is quite important to the Big Ten members.
There is all the difference in the world between an elite college, a college, a university, and a national research university.
National research universities are focused on their graduate students and research more so than undergraduate education. Every B10 school fits this mold so do Pitt, UNC, UVa, Duke, VT, NC State, Florida, GT, Emory, Georgia, Texas, TAMU, Tennessee, Vandy, Mizzou, Kansas, ISU, LSU, Colorado, Colorado State, Arizona, Utah, all four schools in California, and Washington. MIT, Cal Tech, Tufts, Mayo, Rennslar, SUNY Buffalo and Stoney, Rice, Case Western, plus UC SD, UC SF, UC Irvine, etc., There are about 80-90 of these most are in the AAU, most are ranked higher than 100 in ARWU unless they are very, very small.
To me this is the key difference - the size, scope, and role of graduate education. Most sports fans are never going to understand this, especially if they do not have an advanced degree.
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