Where will we end up?

[Tampabull99]

The ACC would look our way. Here is what concerns me. There are three leagues that put a lot behind academics along with athletics. The Big 10 is at the top there, the ACC and Pac 10 follow suit. The ACC took WVU and Louisville off the board during last expansion because their academic standing wasn't great. This was lead by Duke, Wake and  UNC. VT was added I've Syracuse because of legislative pressure. I don't see the same happening in Florida. If the ACC expands and it's not guarenteed, that would be our best shot at BCS with the Big East dissolving.

I really don't get the academics thing regarding the Big 10.    Their top academic schools are Michigan, Northwestern, and maybe Illinois.  Good schools but hardly in line with the Pac10 (Stanford, Berkely, UCLA) or maybe even the ACC (Duke, UVA, UNC).  They're only marginally better than the SEC and about the same as the Big 12.  Furthermore, the big east has some pretty respectable academic schools although I will admit USF still has some work to do in that area.

You might want to check facts.  All EXCEPT Northwestern are Tier 1 and in the top 30 national universities as ranked by US News and World Report. The Big 10 actually compares with the Ivy League in academics.

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/national-top-public

With all due respect, you are the one that needs to check your facts.  That link you posted is the top PUBLIC universities.  That’s the reason Northwestern (which is by far the best academic school in the Big 10) is excluded. Do you really think Northwestern is not one of the top universities in the Big 10? 

Anyway, here’s the real list including all universities:

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/national-universities-rankings

Using your top 30 rationale with the real list:

Pac 10- 4 schools: Stanford, UC-Berkeley, UCLA,  USC

ACC- 4 schools: Duke, UVA, UNC-CH, Wake Forest

Big10- 2 schools: Northwestern and UMichigan

My point in the original post is not that Big 10 academics are poor, just that they are not the amazing academic power conference that they want us to think they are. 

By the way, you might want to look at the top 25 on the real list and rethink that “Big10 compares with the Ivy league†comment.

When academic institutions want to know the how a university stands, they don't use the US News & World Report rankings (or the

They look at membership in the Association of American Universities and theCarnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.

The Big Ten and Pac Ten are on par... which is why the rumored schools for the Big Ten are all AAU members... and why BYU is not on the list for the Pac 10.

I agree that the US News & World Report rankings aren't the gold standard but that's the info he wanted to use to refute my original statement so that's why I used it in turn.  And of course the Big10 loves the AAU status, most of their schools were invited in the early 20th century when their academic prestige was much higher RELATIVE to the rest of the country than it is now.  For example, do you really think there's much difference between the academic prestige of AAU member Michigan state and non-AAU member Arizona State?  A diploma factory with an AAU tag is still a diploma factory.

I stand by my statement that the Pac10 is much stronger than the Big10.  As a brief example, look at would would generally be agreed upon as the strongest academic programs in each conference:

Stanford, UCBerkeley, UCLA, USC.

vs.

Northwestern, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin.

I will freely admit that both conferences level out to average with each other at the bottom of the conference (despite the "inherited" AAU label by the Big10 schools).

The Big10 academic prestige argument smells a lot like the argument we've been hearing out of Gainesville for years about this same subject (see "harvard of the south" BS). They think that if you constantly run around tell everyone that you are academically rigorous and prestigious, maybe someone will start believing it eventually.   

[SRQ]

What's the difference between C-USA part 2 and a watered down Big East?

the bottom of the respective leagues would differ substantially.

[FazaUSF]

Interesting - Scout/CFN takes interest in our little "where will we end up" dilemma. The link to this story is on the front page of CFN's homepage: http://cfn.scout.com/2/967189.html

5/2 An Open Letter From USF To The Big East 

By Ian Hudson

CollegeFootballNews.com

Posted May 2, 2010 

An Open Letter from USF to the Big East

Dear Big East,

Again with this?

We’re only five years removed from your last raid, and we have to deal with the Big Ten now?

Now granted, we are the newcomers to the party. It was because of that raid that we were able to leave C-USA for the greener pastures of your conference. We got BCS affiliation, the conference kept a school in the best football state in the country. It was win-win. This is our home now, and we are quite comfortable.

But our home may be in trouble. We hear that The Big Ten (who should change their name or learn to count) has come a-callin’. Offering promises of bigger revenue streams and notoriety. And who are they after? Rutgers? Syracuse? Pitt?

We know you can’t really talk about it. We’re just concerned. We have scheduling problems as it is, what with only eight teams in the conference. Between falling under the eight teams required to maintain it, and with the Mountain West making so much noise, we’re worried that our BCS affiliation would disappear. And, not to add more problems, but who knows if some remaining members won’t try to jump to the SEC or ACC?

Look, we’re not trying to tell you how to run the conference. This is your barbeque, and it tastes good. But with possibly two raids in ten years, maybe it’s time to go on the offensive. We know you guys are working hard behind closed doors, figuring out what to do. It’s clear that the conference championship game set up is where it’s at.

We think you should add two or three teams, depending on whether or not the Big Ten steals someone away. It will probably be tough for you to get anyone away from another BCS conference, but our first choice would probably be Boston College. They were an old member, and there’s no way they’re happy in the ACC. After that, sure: Central Florida and East Carolina. UCF would provide a natural rivalry game for us, and East Carolina has won the C-USA championship the last two years.

Again, we know y’all are working hard on this. We just wanted to offer our two cents. Good luck with everything. And the next time you’re in Tampa, we’ll take you out for some Mel’s Hot Dogs.

Sincerely,

The USF Bulls