Those residents of Michigan have an outdated view of Ohio State. With respect to admission criteria, Ohio State has a competitive admission process in which students are considered for admission based largely on their academic performance and credentials. All students are considered under competitive standards except Ohio residents applying to an Ohio State regional campus in Lima, Mansfield, Marion, or Newark, or to Ohio State ATI in Wooster.
I will readily admit that the University of Michigan is an excellent public university and Ohio State still has work to do to reach their level. However, the idea that Ohio State is "the world's largest community college located in Columbus, OH" is simply false. I hope that you can appreciate, as an Ohio State alum and an alum of a school in a conference which many associated with UConn would like to join, it is difficult to just ignore such statements. That said, this is your board and the defense of a school in the B1G is not its purpose so I will let it rest at this point.
As I have looked at different schools during B1G expansion, I have come to believe that UConn is an excellent university and as a public research university and basketball brand would be a great fit for the B1G. I think it is ridiculous that UConn has been left on the outside looking in with realignment. I wish all of you well and hope that you eventually find yourself in a conference of which you can be proud to be a member.
If you don't live in the immediate area of a school, you don't generally know what it is all about. I applied to colleges 6 years ago, and actually applied to OSU. I did not get it, but I would have been thrilled to have gone. OSU is an excellent school, and it is regarded as such. U of M may have the edge, but they are in a class that only a handful of public universities are in (think Texas and UVA). As far as the other schools go, OSU is clearly in the second (if you want to call it that tier). If it comes down to a choice between going to Ohio State or Indiana, or Iowa, Alabama, Mississippi, etc., there are few schools that OSU would not get the edge against.
I was fortunate to get into UConn, and honestly, am grateful that I did. What UConn was when I applied, and what is becoming is incredible. UConn is now in that vein of schools where you would absolutely choose UConn over many of the others, and while it was starting to get there when I was accepted and attended, it is becoming more so even faster than I imagined. If I applied to UConn now with the grades I had in high school, I would be sweating bullets as to whether I would be accepted, and I was in the top 40% of a very good high school.
Just as an aside, don't take anything regarding what any of us says about other schools personally. One thing I have found glaringly obvious during this whole realignment process is that we really do not know much about schools in different regions of the country very well. For example (not to insult these schools), when I was looking into colleges, I never in a million years could have been talked into Iowa or Indiana as a realistic college to go to. Now, while I still regard UConn more highly, I wouldn't say anything bad about them. It is really all about where you grow up, and know the most about.
