I've been doing some thinking on this since Big 12 CR collapsed. Trying to do so without Husky blue colored glasses. These are the areas where I think a school needs to "check the box" for P5. They don't need all of them, just a majority, 5 out of 8. Find me a P5 school that doesn't tick at least 5.
- Flagship or clear 2nd Tier (e.g. "X State") public or elite private university
- History in D1 football (basketball history not important because that group is too large)
- Large fan following (across football and/or basketball). Attendance as a measure
- Large endowment ($750M+)
- Football program accomplishment (not just recent)
- Basketball program accomplishment (not just recent)
- Strong research or AAU
- Overall AD budget/commitment to athletics
So, 8 metrics. Let's look AAC schools. UConn. Checks boxes 1, 3, 6 and 8.
Borderline. Memphis: boxes 2, 3, 6.
Out. UCF: checks box 5.
Out. USF: Boxes 5, 7.
Out. Houston: Boxes 2, 4, 5, 6.
Borderline. Tulane: Boxes 1, 2, 4, 7.
Borderline. Cincinnati: Boxes 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
Should be in.
How about the newest P5 schools? Louisville: Box 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8. In. TCU: Box 2, 3, 4, 5, 8. In. Utah: Box 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8. In. Rutgers: Boxes 1, 2, 4, 7, 8. In.
A school can't fix #2, only time can do that. UConn is working on 3, 4, 5 and 7. You can see our efforts are pointed in the direction of checking more of the boxes we can check.