(04-03-2019 04:52 PM)10thMountain Wrote: The Presidents make these decisions and I can’t see them asking the top academic school in the league to leave. As Frank the Tank famously (and correctly) said, we as fans think only about sports but forget how important academics are to the Presidents who run the leagues.
Outside of emergency responses to raids, academics are always an important factor in expansion and membership
No **** Sherlock! The point is most of the presidents and A.D.'s are a bit weary of the accommodations of a stadium, which is overwhelmingly small for the SEC, and which has not been renovated since 1981, tired of the Commodores not getting on board with things like women's softball, and want them to invest in the same things the other 14 invest in. Have they been asked to leave? I believe, even for those who are challenged to read and comprehend, that they won't be asked to leave, haven't been asked to leave, and the SEC which has never asked a member to leave, won't break that important precedent in this case.
I believe my response was that Vanderbilt knowing this won't be improving facilities and that things will remain as they are.
Now let's unpack what Frank had to say. It is true that university presidents value academic associations. That said they also value all revenue. In the Big 10 they have a historic association academically, but they don't share grants the way that many of you think. They apply for grants by writing proposals for those grants using the best research programs from among their member schools which might apply to an aspect of that grant. No school earns a piece of the grant unless they meet the qualifications contained within the grant. So if Purdue can meet an aspect of an Aeronautical Engineering Grant for NASA, and Ohio State can meet aspects of bio-engineering plants for space research, and another school like Northwestern meets some medical research all on the same grant then they will submit a joint proposal and share aspects of that grant and work with each other on it. Those three schools then do not earn more money for the other 11 Big 10 schools. The SEC and ACC have begun to do the same, but we have a much more limited history and not as broad a base of schools in conference with which to work. Vanderbilt will be focused mostly on medical research. There won't be many aspects of grants that they can share with other SEC schools that they don't already have the ability to meet.
If the SEC lost a Vanderbilt it's not clear that it would impact our ability to land other types of grants, or share grants, at all.
What holds Vanderbilt firmly in the SEC is history and tradition and I don't believe those will be challenged, and I don't believe we will ever ask Vandy to leave. But they hold a slot in our conference which if held by another large state school flagship which was also AAU would be more diverse in disciplines to be better able to share grants, and which also would likely add more athletic value to the conference.
So let me put it to you another way. If Vanderbilt values its presence historically and traditionally within the SEC is updating facilities and providing a women's softball team (instead of, or in addition to, women's bowling) too much to ask?
The Big 10 loves to tout what used to be the CIC, but in reality they haven't added a dime of grant money to any member school which didn't have the disciplinary expertise to earn their portion of the shared grant.
So 10th, academic associations are important, but if a member school doesn't share aspects of grants with other member institutions better suited to handle that aspect of a grant then just exactly what tangible benefit do the other member schools derive from their presence other than to fawn over their AAU rating? Now how many sports fans even have an inkling about that?
It is why I have suggested several times that the best way out of this stalemate might be to utilize what Notre Dame has done with the ACC. Let Vanderbilt remain a full member of all sports within the SEC that they wish to participate in (basketball for men and women, baseball, soccer, etc.,) but to be independent in football if they wish to keep it at all. If they do keep it guarantee them the 5 games they want annually (Ole Miss, Kentucky, Tennessee, probably Missouri, and rotate the other). That frees them to play Rice, Wake Forest, Duke, Northwestern or whomever they feel a kindred association with. They'll get a per game payout from the SEC for those home and away games. They would split evenly the revenue from all sports they participate in fully. That way we can keep the academic and historic association with them, they don't have to build up facilities, and we have a slot to offer to a program that is more profitable for all.
