(05-09-2017 08:25 PM)miko33 Wrote:  

(05-09-2017 04:03 PM)Kittonhead Wrote:  

(05-09-2017 03:35 PM)miko33 Wrote:  

(05-09-2017 03:07 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  JRsec,

The one that counts is Boren. He will decide. The people the President most has to keep happy are the faculty. And no question they would prefer the B1G or Pac-12. Faculty at Nebraska popped the champagne with the announcement, because it meant the academic future of the school we secure. (This is the biggest problem the SEC has, not fans but faculty opposition)

Missouri's entire dance with the SEC and it's going through the motions with the B1G was all about convincing the faculty that the B1G was not in the cards and that the SEC is where they have to go. Everyone in the Big XII was convinced before June 2010 that Missouri was going to the SEC. So what held it up? The faculty senate folks.

Sounds like urban legends. Why would the faculties at these schools care which sports conference the university schools participate in? It's not like conference affiliation has any bearing on who the faculty at OU and Mizzou can and cannot collaborate with on research projects. These universities departments rise and fall based on what the faculty are doing, what connections they have with peers, what kinds of research they do and how well they can sell ideas to obtain research grants.

Salaries to retain the talent is important.

OU and Mizzou aren't getting the research faculty in the door the way you'll find at a B1G schools which really drop money on faculty. B1G schools are competing against the top research schools in the country (UC's, Ivy's, UAA's) for faculty.

So? That's an OU and Mizzou problem - not a conference affiliation problem. OU moving to the B1G doesn't automatically turn the spigots on for big research dollars. Top researchers won't be attracted to OU just because they are now in a different athletic conference. It's nothing more than verbal masturbation to state that B1G membership improves academic quality. If your quality is sh!t, rebranding yourself does not change the fact that your quality is sh!t.

This...

For the most part...

Faculty do not associate or disassociate themselves with schools and research opportunities based on athletic affiliation. To say otherwise is "verbal masturbation."

I think it is often lost in this discussion that we are talking shades of green. When we are talking P5 schools we are talking, collectively, a group of the very best. Even "****" P5 schools have student population scoring in the top 20% of kids nationwide.

To expand on my earlier point, if the SLU Muddogs offered a major researcher $500,000 and a limitless supply of money they would overnight become a hub for whatever it is that researcher is known for. That's common among humanities with smaller less well known schools harboring the nation's best in certain things.