(02-26-2015 11:08 PM)NittanyLion Wrote:  (4) Ex-UM President Mary Sue Coleman, has no power and is possibly dead. Sure she would have advocated for Iowa when she had power, but those days are long gone.

Mary Sue has only been out of office 9 months or so. She's a good friend to have the business.

Those academic types spend their first 30 years obtaining degree on top of degree before they start rising through the ranks of billion dollar academic research institutions. By the time they get to the top of something they've been to at least 5 other prestigious places in the middle of cornfields and rust, and made a few friends along the way.

The point being, they're not as interested in what's trending on twitter or population maps as we are. Sure they take notice, but among other things, why would you want your university in the middle of everything when students will come to you and pay out-of-state or out-of-country tuition? (some humor intended there, but it's true)

Sure there's a risk that Midwestern schools might not be able to continue funding their schools at the same level, but that problem is not at all unique to the Midwest (see North Carolina, Louisiana, California -- seriously, Google it). If anything, if the Eastern schools start humming along in B1G it will prompt the Midwestern leaders to work a little harder at funding, etc.

And speaking of funding, take a look at the endowments of Big Ten schools. The Eastern schools have a lot of catching up to do in that department.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Ten_Conference