(05-09-2017 07:20 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  

(05-09-2017 05:33 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(05-09-2017 04:57 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  

(05-09-2017 04:51 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  

(05-09-2017 04:23 PM)JRsec Wrote:  Most of those were charter members and in Mississippi the mission of the schools are very similar to those of West Virginia.

Apples and Oranges. The comparison is SEC vs B1G or P12. Inertia bias is not relevant. One does not have to leave one's home, but when one does they prefer to move in with the more compatible group.

SEC perception among faculty is a real issue. 3 of 4 R2 public Universities in P5 are in the SEC. The Big 12 did have steady subtle pressure ( most from Texas) which resulted in Kansas State, Texas Tech, and West Virginia investing to attain R1 status. That has not happened in the SEC.

The solution for the SEC is for a member (Kentucky is the closest) to make AAU and to push the Alabama and Mississippi school to get serious about their research rankings. So far it's all about being Southerners and continuing the stereotype that Southerners rank education lower than sports. That is the choice the SEC is making.

This is a tired line.

Not all schools specialize in the same types of academic areas and not all research is dollar intensive.

For instance, Alabama's most respected program is accounting, which is elite, but how much in the way of research dollars go into accounting?

Your metric is a crude attempt at a one size fits all that at its core is rather, well, stupid and not reflective of how schools compare themselves to one another.

The larger point is that by any reasonable metric, OU as a research institution would rank, at best, somewhere in the middle of the SEC. If OU people feel academically superior to the SEC, they have no reasonable basis for that feeling.

I may have misinterpreted that but I took the overall point to be that the SEC has some kind of stigma based upon this rather nebulous idea of "research," which it appears to mean pure dollars.

My point is simply that not all areas of "research" are cash intensive and thus schools with a bias towards the softer sciences and humanities will of corse appear on paper to lag behind where in reality they will have their peers within the given academic circles.

Those with a softer science focus are not part of the "research elite".

There are other ways to measure a university of course intellectually.

There are Fulbright Scholarships. Level of academic freedom at a university. Nature of the programs offered at the university can distinguish between a low, mid and high tier school. Is the school residential or commuter?

Most of the SEC would be viewed as mid-tier research universities with an emphasis on professional programs.