B1G

[frankthetank]

I wasn't stating the case for USF, but if you read the document it provides insight into a lot of the metrics that they perceive as important. Articles published that detail how Nebraska was booted out and how Syracuse bowed out indicate that there is a lot of lobbying that goes on. In terms of strict metrics, many schools currently fall short. The challenge for UCONN and other schools is that the AAU wants to maintain a certain level of exclusivity but at the same time some members don't have the appetite (post Nebraska) to thin out current members that don't conform to standards.

There is certainly lobbying, but what the AAU has actually been doing is becoming *more* heavily reliant on those objective metrics to both look for potential new members or cut out the bottom schools. One critically important indicator is federal research funding (which was the subject of much of the debate about whether Nebraska would stay or go). Here were the figures for schools from 2010 (the last list that I can find):

http://chronicle.com/article/Extended-List-Research/65212

Interestingly, the University of Alabama at Birmingham is very clearly the top school outside of the AAU in terms of federal funding. That might seem a bit strange if you don't know about their graduate programs, but its medical school has a massive research facility (and medical research is where a disproportionate amount of federal funding goes to). #2 among non-AAU schools at the time was Boston University, who has since been invited. Only two other schools (Colorado State and Cincinnati) had over $200 million in federal research dollars in 2010 (albeit two others - Hawaii and the University of Illinois at Chicago, the latter of which houses the public medical school and research center for the state of Illinois - are very close). Utah, USF and Miami are the next ones on the list in terms of straight dollar amounts (although Miami would receive a *huge* benefit of having its figures "normalized" where figures are adjusted to account for schools that have smaller numbers of faculty members and students, so that's why I've noted previously that they're likely the next school in line to receive AAU membership).

This is where UConn needs to make up a lot of ground if it wants to truly compete for AAU membership (because believe me - virtually every halfway decent school has a plan to become an AAU member in the next 10 to 20 years, so having a plan in and of itself doesn't mean much). UAB, Colorado State, Cincinnati, Hawaii, UIC and Miami (with its normalized figures) are all schools that are very clearly in a tier above the rest of the competition on this critical (if not most important) metric. Putting aside any Big Ten thoughts, note that Cincinnati and USF are also clearly ahead of UConn on this metric, so that has to be taken into account for spots in places like the Big 12 or ACC, too.

Always remember that undergrad admissions don't really mean that much for AAU membership, so the fact that UConn is substantially more difficult to get into for undergrad compared to Cincinnati and USF doesn't matter because their medical research funding is substantially far ahead of UConn at this point. Looking at those figures should be a reality check when considering how incredibly stringent AAU has been in terms of adding members over the past 20 years. UConn would have to almost double its federal research funding to match what Cincinnati already has (and jump a whole slew of other schools like Kentucky, Wake Forest, LSU and even Princeton and Dartmouth in the process). UConn is also a large public school, so it's not going to get the benefit of adjustments for size in the same way that places like Miami, Wake Forest and Yeshiva would. We can say that anything is possible, but those are realistically extremely tough numbers to overcome in a short period of time. (It would likely take a generation of everything going correctly to make up that ground while also assuming that everyone that you're competing against stagnates.) Frankly, selling out 60,000 seats for football every game is probably an easier target by comparison.

 

[upstater]

There is certainly lobbying, but what the AAU has actually been doing is becoming *more* heavily reliant on those objective metrics to both look for potential new members or cut out the bottom schools. One critically important indicator is federal research funding (which was the subject of much of the debate about whether Nebraska would stay or go). Here were the figures for schools from 2010 (the last list that I can find):

http://chronicle.com/article/Extended-List-Research/65212

Interestingly, the University of Alabama at Birmingham is very clearly the top school outside of the AAU in terms of federal funding. That might seem a bit strange if you don't know about their graduate programs, but its medical school has a massive research facility (and medical research is where a disproportionate amount of federal funding goes to). #2 among non-AAU schools at the time was Boston University, who has since been invited. Only two other schools (Colorado State and Cincinnati) had over $200 million in federal research dollars in 2010 (albeit two others - Hawaii and the University of Illinois at Chicago, the latter of which houses the public medical school and research center for the state of Illinois - are very close). Utah, USF and Miami are the next ones on the list in terms of straight dollar amounts (although Miami would receive a *huge* benefit of having its figures "normalized" where figures are adjusted to account for schools that have smaller numbers of faculty members and students, so that's why I've noted previously that they're likely the next school in line to receive AAU membership).

This is where UConn needs to make up a lot of ground if it wants to truly compete for AAU membership (because believe me - virtually every halfway decent school has a plan to become an AAU member in the next 10 to 20 years, so having a plan in and of itself doesn't mean much). UAB, Colorado State, Cincinnati, Hawaii, UIC and Miami (with its normalized figures) are all schools that are very clearly in a tier above the rest of the competition on this critical (if not most important) metric. Putting aside any Big Ten thoughts, note that Cincinnati and USF are also clearly ahead of UConn on this metric, so that has to be taken into account for spots in places like the Big 12 or ACC, too.

Always remember that undergrad admissions don't really mean that much for AAU membership, so the fact that UConn is substantially more difficult to get into for undergrad compared to Cincinnati and USF doesn't matter because their medical research funding is substantially far ahead of UConn at this point. Looking at those figures should be a reality check when considering how incredibly stringent AAU has been in terms of adding members over the past 20 years. UConn would have to almost double its federal research funding to match what Cincinnati already has (and jump a whole slew of other schools like Kentucky, Wake Forest, LSU and even Princeton and Dartmouth in the process). UConn is also a large public school, so it's not going to get the benefit of adjustments for size in the same way that places like Miami, Wake Forest and Yeshiva would. We can say that anything is possible, but those are realistically extremely tough numbers to overcome in a short period of time. (It would likely take a generation of everything going correctly to make up that ground while also assuming that everyone that you're competing against stagnates.) Frankly, selling out 60,000 seats for football every game is probably an easier target by comparison.

You're looking at federal research dollars but overlooking AAU criteria for competitive peer-reviewed research grants. The AAU looks at the latter.

UAB, Cincy, USF use this money to run medical centers, not to conduct research. The AAU takes this into account.

The comment at the bottom of that article is precisely right in stating that is a shockingly misleading article.

The only measure would be to look at competitive research grants. That's the long and short of it. The rest is really just pork-barrel spending.

Not all federal funds are created equally.

 

[frankthetank]

Right. But Nebraska supposedly brings a national following. I don't see it but that's what "they" say.

Are you freaking serious?! That's about as myopic of a statement of the college sports world order as I've ever seen. They have the best fan base in college football. Period. Take a look at this picture of a sea of red:

http://www.tumblr.com/photo/1280/backinnebraska/694429815/1/tumblr_l3yrm2zwUG1qzaea0

That's not a Nebraska home game. Instead, that's a picture of when Nebraska visited NOTRE DAME. When Nebraska played Texas in the 2009 Big 12 championship game, the Huskers brought more fans even though (1) the Longhorns were playing for a national title slot and (2) the game was in DALLAS! For home games, they have sold out every single seat for every single game since 1960. Do you understand that? 43 straight years of sellouts (and we're talking about an 80,000 seat stadium). This is a school that just had 60,000 people show up for their spring game and they all actually paid for those tickets. They are to college football what the Packers are to the NFL: their fans are everywhere despite being based in a small market. If there is one school that pummels every other school's fans in loyalty (and I include superpowers like Alabama, Ohio State and Notre Dame in that equation), it's Nebraska.

 

[ddminct]

Are you freaking serious?! That's about as myopic of a statement of the college sports world order as I've ever seen. They have the best fan base in college football. Period. Take a look at this picture of a sea of red:

http://www.tumblr.com/photo/1280/backinnebraska/694429815/1/tumblr_l3yrm2zwUG1qzaea0

That's not a Nebraska home game. Instead, that's a picture of when Nebraska visited NOTRE DAME. When Nebraska played Texas in the 2009 Big 12 championship game, the Huskers brought more fans even though (1) the Longhorns were playing for a national title slot and (2) the game was in DALLAS! For home games, they have sold out every single seat for every single game since 1960. Do you understand that? 43 straight years of sellouts (and we're talking about an 80,000 seat stadium). This is a school that just had 60,000 people show up for their spring game and they all actually paid for those tickets. They are to college football what the Packers are to the NFL: their fans are everywhere despite being based in a small market. If there is one school that pummels every other school's fans in loyalty (and I include superpowers like Alabama, Ohio State and Notre Dame in that equation), it's Nebraska.

All I see in the picture is a sea of blue

 

[upstater]

All I see in the picture is a sea of blue

Heh. Frank is right though. They have the best fans. They also have a reputation of being the classiest fans around.

 

[ddminct]

Heh. Frank is right though. They have the best fans. They also have a reputation of being the classiest fans around.

I know they do. I was actually interested in seeing the picture

 

[frankthetank]

You're looking at federal research dollars but overlooking AAU criteria for competitive peer-reviewed research grants. The AAU looks at the latter.

UAB, Cincy, USF use this money to run medical centers, not to conduct research. The AAU takes this into account.

The comment at the bottom of that article is precisely right in stating that is a shockingly misleading article.

The only measure would be to look at competitive research grants. That's the long and short of it. The rest is really just pork-barrel spending.

Not all federal funds are created equally.

I agree - that's the crux of what Nebraska was trying to argue against since the AAU was docking its federal research funding metrics to not include any federal agriculture research funds while simultaneously still including those agriculture professors and researchers in its faculty counts (so the AAU was subtracting from Nebraska's federal funding numerator and adding to Nebraska's faculty denominator, which resulted in a poor "normalized" metric). Even considering the dollars being used to run medical centers, though, my point is that AAU membership isn't just some type of foregone conclusion with easily attainable goals if you "just work hard enough" (which I don't think you're arguing at all, but some others on this board seem to have that line of thinking). There are a lot of schools in the mix for very few slots (maybe 1 or 2 over the next decade with how the AAU has been expanding), so you need to know your competition and where you stand. Like I've said, I know that Miami in particular is very high on the overall AAU metrics in the same way BU was a couple of years ago, so that's one very clear competitor already (much less the public flagship schools across the country that are all jockeying for position).

 

[frankthetank]

I know they do. I was actually interested in seeing the picture

Not sure why that didn't work, but here's an article straight from a Notre Dame history website with an accompanying picture:

http://www.todayinndhistory.com/pages/events/?id=320

 

[upstater]

I agree - that's the crux of what Nebraska was trying to argue against since the AAU was docking its federal research funding metrics to not include any federal agriculture research funds while simultaneously still including those agriculture professors and researchers in its faculty counts (so the AAU was subtracting from Nebraska's federal funding numerator and adding to Nebraska's faculty denominator, which resulted in a poor "normalized" metric). Even considering the dollars being used to run medical centers, though, my point is that AAU membership isn't just some type of foregone conclusion with easily attainable goals if you "just work hard enough" (which I don't think you're arguing at all, but some others on this board seem to have that line of thinking). There are a lot of schools in the mix for very few slots (maybe 1 or 2 over the next decade with how the AAU has been expanding), so you need to know your competition and where you stand. Like I've said, I know that Miami in particular is very high on the overall AAU metrics in the same way BU was a couple of years ago, so that's one very clear competitor already (much less the public flagship schools across the country that are all jockeying for position).

I agree it will be difficult. As a BU grad though, I know it can be done quickly. That school is now well above the level it used to be a short time ago (get rid of football, pump up research! heh). UConn is threading the needle here. They are trying to hire 200 top notch faculty all of whom will try to nab $750k in grants each. If there's little malinvestment in this scheme, it could work within 3 or 4 years. And then they'll be in the foyer.

The backdrop, of course, is that other schools are creating metrics with their own faculty to increase grants by 40% in the next 5 years. These are the bottom AAU schools, so by the time UConn will have reached BU's level, these other schools want to be 50% above that. And of course this is being done at a time when the federal government is cutting funding to the foundations and when a sequester is turning off the research funding pipeline. So, good luck with all of this.

Will I be shocked if UConn accomplishes what it is setting out to do? No. But look at U. Albany. They sunk billions into their school, focused on their economy, and brought in $14 billion. But all that money is contracted in partnerships. Little of it is won with competitive grants, which is why Albany is not an AAU school. The difficulty UConn will face is this: does it want to improve the school and the standing of the school, or is UConn being used as a lynchpin to attract high-tech business?

One road takes you to the AAU, the other road takes you to Albany (which isn't a bad road at all), and the other road (where you squander all the money) takes you to debtor's jail (ala Rutgers).

 

[Durks07]

Are you freaking serious?! That's about as myopic of a statement of the college sports world order as I've ever seen. They have the best fan base in college football. Period. Take a look at this picture of a sea of red:

http://www.tumblr.com/photo/1280/backinnebraska/694429815/1/tumblr_l3yrm2zwUG1qzaea0

That's not a Nebraska home game. Instead, that's a picture of when Nebraska visited NOTRE DAME. When Nebraska played Texas in the 2009 Big 12 championship game, the Huskers brought more fans even though (1) the Longhorns were playing for a national title slot and (2) the game was in DALLAS! For home games, they have sold out every single seat for every single game since 1960. Do you understand that? 43 straight years of sellouts (and we're talking about an 80,000 seat stadium). This is a school that just had 60,000 people show up for their spring game and they all actually paid for those tickets. They are to college football what the Packers are to the NFL: their fans are everywhere despite being based in a small market. If there is one school that pummels every other school's fans in loyalty (and I include superpowers like Alabama, Ohio State and Notre Dame in that equation), it's Nebraska.

Nebraska was the smartest move a conference has made in realignment thus far (from a pure athletic perspective). You can sell Neb. vs. insert opponent here every single year. Nebraska's inclusion enhanced the quality of the B1G Network's football content for every single game they play. It was a no-brainer addition, despite the expulsion from the AAU. It also helps preserve quality content while the B1G acted on it's strategy to grow the markets the network is covered in. Even in markets that are outside the B1G footprint, they can get more subscriber fees from a nationwide fan base that wants to see those games.

 

[CL82]

From the memos I've seen, the culling is real and will continue. There's a lot of lobbying, but what I'm saying is that there are no preliminary agreements. There can't be, because there is no commissioner in charge. In fact, one of the ways Nebraska was ousted was for a coalition to table the vote on Nebraska and then wait for the next session when the committee reformed with enough votes to oust it. In other words, each year the decision makers change, and who knows what the consensus will be.

On the flip side, that report by USF fails to mention that a huge source of funds for the research that goes on at USF comes from running the medical center. There are several universities across the country that have an enormous amount tied up in their medical centers, like Cincy, USF and UAB. This is where the bulk of the research revenue comes from. If these revenues were counted as competitive research dollars, schools like UAB and San Francisco and Cincy would already be AAU members. One of the reasons Nebraska was kicked out was because 80% of its research funding came from such non-competitive grants. The AAU will not consider these as research. For the same reason, anything that UConn has going with Jackson Labs, or the med. center, or even the public-private partnerships will not be considered as research revenue. U. Albany, for instance, has had many billions roll into the university, and private partnerships totally $14 billion, but it has no AAU membership.

The AAU will only look at faculty performance (in terms of publications, awards, fellowships) and winning competitive research grants, mainly from national foundations.

I would expect that in order to win competitive grants you need capacity and capability. Non competitive research projects, like those to be generated by the Jackson Labs partnership help you build your staffing and show quantifiable results. I have to believe that that is needed before you can win a competitive grant.

 

[upstater]

I would expect that in order to win competitive grants you need capacity and capability. Non competitive research projects, like those to be generated by the Jackson Labs partnership help you build your staffing and show quantifiable results. I have to believe that that is needed before you can win a competitive grant.

Maybe it helps. Needed? No. What you need is good faculty. Are better faculty being attracted to Albany? Maybe. But they're competing with Berkeley and Stanford. When it comes to high-tech chips, the top faculty will go there.

I saw a guy at Berkeley recently completed a 3D chip (not virtual 3D, but rather the design was not flat, it was multi-dimensional). Upon completion, he gave it away for free--released all patent rights. Some of these cats are not motivated by money. The people plopping down in Albany are. There's nothing wrong with applying science as Albany is doing (STEM people have been arguing that Germany has been cleaning America's clock in precisely this fashion for ages) but the competitive grants are going to the high-concept sexy projects, not the applied projects.

 

[The Funster]

Well, here's hope membership in Universitas 21 will count for something.

 

[NickyNewark]

I agree it will be difficult. As a BU grad though, I know it can be done quickly. That school is now well above the level it used to be a short time ago (get rid of football, pump up research! heh). UConn is threading the needle here. They are trying to hire 200 top notch faculty all of whom will try to nab $750k in grants each. If there's little malinvestment in this scheme, it could work within 3 or 4 years. And then they'll be in the foyer.

The backdrop, of course, is that other schools are creating metrics with their own faculty to increase grants by 40% in the next 5 years. These are the bottom AAU schools, so by the time UConn will have reached BU's level, these other schools want to be 50% above that. And of course this is being done at a time when the federal government is cutting funding to the foundations and when a sequester is turning off the research funding pipeline. So, good luck with all of this.

Will I be shocked if UConn accomplishes what it is setting out to do? No. But look at U. Albany. They sunk billions into their school, focused on their economy, and brought in $14 billion. But all that money is contracted in partnerships. Little of it is won with competitive grants, which is why Albany is not an AAU school. The difficulty UConn will face is this: does it want to improve the school and the standing of the school, or is UConn being used as a lynchpin to attract high-tech business?

One road takes you to the AAU, the other road takes you to Albany (which isn't a bad road at all), and the other road (where you squander all the money) takes you to debtor's jail (ala Rutgers).

"RU for the 6th straight year finished first again amongst public schools in APR list to be published on June 11th. RU has finished in the top 10% every year since "07" including 1st,2nd and 9th ala Duke and Stanford among BCS schools" !!..I wonder will the SL and ESPN tout that information?

 

[upstater]

"RU for the 6th straight year finished first again amongst public schools in APR list to be published on June 11th. RU has finished in the top 10% every year since "07" including 1st,2nd and 9th ala Duke and Stanford among BCS schools" !!..I wonder will the SL and ESPN tout that information?

Surely, you realize this is not the place to tout APR information. It's the most anti-academic stat out there. It's a joke.

I was referencing Rutgers' need to cut programs because of bad investments and debt in the last decade. This more than anything contributed to all the Rutgers faculty fleeing and creating the sort of drop in reputation that saw RU also drop a lot in the rankings. There is no question, however, that Rutgers is still a top school.

But it has had a bad decade of bad decisions and bad investments.

 

[UConn Dan]

Are you freaking serious?! That's about as myopic of a statement of the college sports world order as I've ever seen. They have the best fan base in college football. Period. Take a look at this picture of a sea of red:

http://www.tumblr.com/photo/1280/backinnebraska/694429815/1/tumblr_l3yrm2zwUG1qzaea0

That's not a Nebraska home game. Instead, that's a picture of when Nebraska visited NOTRE DAME. When Nebraska played Texas in the 2009 Big 12 championship game, the Huskers brought more fans even though (1) the Longhorns were playing for a national title slot and (2) the game was in DALLAS! For home games, they have sold out every single seat for every single game since 1960. Do you understand that? 43 straight years of sellouts (and we're talking about an 80,000 seat stadium). This is a school that just had 60,000 people show up for their spring game and they all actually paid for those tickets. They are to college football what the Packers are to the NFL: their fans are everywhere despite being based in a small market. If there is one school that pummels every other school's fans in loyalty (and I include superpowers like Alabama, Ohio State and Notre Dame in that equation), it's Nebraska.

Wow ***sarcasm*** hello.

 

[itgoeslike]

Actually Conecticut is a much larger state population wise (3,574,097), with nearly double the population of Nebraska (1,826,341), according to the 2010 census.

I meant smaller in reference to the collective United States. But you help validate my point. A state with 1.8M people has a substantial fan base, especially when you consider it as percentage of the states population.

 

[NickyNewark]

Surely, you realize this is not the place to tout APR information. It's the most anti-academic stat out there. It's a joke.

I was referencing Rutgers' need to cut programs because of bad investments and debt in the last decade. This more than anything contributed to all the Rutgers faculty fleeing and creating the sort of drop in reputation that saw RU also drop a lot in the rankings. There is no question, however, that Rutgers is still a top school.

But it has had a bad decade of bad decisions and bad investments.

Sorry,didnt mean to "hijack" the thread but just got the info and after reading your post impulsively passed it on!But yes especially with the reaquisition of the Med school Rutgers academic ranking and reputation should improve dramatically!My apologies!

 

[itgoeslike]

CT's population is actually double that of Nebraska. And while we technically don't have a pro sports team, we really have lots of pro sports teams nearby. Possibly more so than any other university in the nation because of the proximity to two of the biggest pro sports markets in the country/world.

I meant smaller in the context of all states. The draw from New York and Boston makes it tough for Connecticut to provide enough financial support to sustain a pro team. But, in turn, I think it's the reason that UCONN draws high ratings; they are Connecticut's "semi-pro" team if you will, which is a good thing.

 

[NickyNewark]

btw FWIW I see JH "incoming"AD at Rutgers is supposed to have a 4PM presser!! I wonder if it's going to be a "Miller time" moment?lol

 

[Husky25]

I meant smaller in reference to the collective United States. But you help validate my point. A state with 1.8M people has a substantial fan base, especially when you consider it as percentage of the states population.

I'm sure it is a beautiful state and all, but what else is there to do in Nebraska besides follow whatever the Cornhuskers are doing or outside of 2 weeks in June (College World Series)? Nebraska is the 16th largest state, but has the 37th largest population. Not many others have less population density (6 actually, as of the 2010 Census).

This is a state that elected it's flagship university's former football coach to the U.S. Congress basically due to his .830 winning percentage and 3 national championships. It's not surprising they could get 100,000 out of 1.8 million people to be interested in the team playing out of Lincoln on Autumn afternoons.

 

[itgoeslike]

Are you freaking serious?! That's about as myopic of a statement of the college sports world order as I've ever seen. They have the best fan base in college football. Period. Take a look at this picture of a sea of red:

http://www.tumblr.com/photo/1280/backinnebraska/694429815/1/tumblr_l3yrm2zwUG1qzaea0

That's not a Nebraska home game. Instead, that's a picture of when Nebraska visited NOTRE DAME. When Nebraska played Texas in the 2009 Big 12 championship game, the Huskers brought more fans even though (1) the Longhorns were playing for a national title slot and (2) the game was in DALLAS! For home games, they have sold out every single seat for every single game since 1960. Do you understand that? 43 straight years of sellouts (and we're talking about an 80,000 seat stadium). This is a school that just had 60,000 people show up for their spring game and they all actually paid for those tickets. They are to college football what the Packers are to the NFL: their fans are everywhere despite being based in a small market. If there is one school that pummels every other school's fans in loyalty (and I include superpowers like Alabama, Ohio State and Notre Dame in that equation), it's Nebraska.

Being a Nebraska fan is not a pastime, it's a lifestyle. Much of their social and vacation planning revolves around the team. If you search "Nebraska at Northwestern" you can see how the away team can dominate a home team's stadium.

UCONN has the potential to for enhanced fandom. You can see it in basketball (mens & women). Football is making strides. Soccer has a following. Baseball is gaining fans. I think the hockey team and lacrosse will develop strong followings.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

I'm sure it is a beautiful state and all, but what else is there to do in Nebraska besides follow whatever the Cornhuskers are doing or outside of 2 weeks in June (College World Series)? Nebraska is the 16th largest state, but has the 37th largest population. Not many others have less population density (6 actually, as of the 2010 Census).

This is a state that elected it's flagship university's former football coach to the U.S. Congress basically due to his .830 winning percentage and 3 national championships. It's not surprising they could get 100,000 out of 1.8 million people to be interested in the team playing out of Lincoln on Autumn afternoons.

This is why college football in the northeast will never be as big as it is elsewhere. Unless the Yankees, Red Sox, Giants, Jets, Patriots, Knicks, Celtics, Nets, Rangers, and Bruins all leave town. There are simply too many other sports options within 100 miles as the crow flies. The CT resident who enjoys football deciding whether to buy a UConn season ticket, or spend the money on going to a few NFL games of their favorite team is more likely than not going to spend the money on the NFL. Not to mention if they decide the opportunity arises to buy playoff baseball tickets. Those options simply do not exist in places like Nebraska, Alabama, Tennessee, most parts of Texas, etc.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

Being a Nebraska fan is not a pastime, it's a lifestyle. Much of their social and vacation planning revolves around the team. If you search "Nebraska at Northwestern" you can see how the away team can dominate a home team's stadium.

UCONN has the potential to for enhanced fandom. You can see it in basketball (mens & women). Football is making strides. Soccer has a following. Baseball is gaining fans. I think the hockey team and lacrosse will develop strong followings.

You're right, there is room for improvement, and it's being made, but it'll never be number one. Plop down 10 of the most historically successful and most-followed pro sports teams within 2.5 hours of Lincoln, and envision them all being there for 75-100+ years with 3-4 generations of existing fans. You won't be getting 85K to Nebraska football.

 

[itgoeslike]

I agree - that's the crux of what Nebraska was trying to argue against since the AAU was docking its federal research funding metrics to not include any federal agriculture research funds while simultaneously still including those agriculture professors and researchers in its faculty counts (so the AAU was subtracting from Nebraska's federal funding numerator and adding to Nebraska's faculty denominator, which resulted in a poor "normalized" metric). Even considering the dollars being used to run medical centers, though, my point is that AAU membership isn't just some type of foregone conclusion with easily attainable goals if you "just work hard enough" (which I don't think you're arguing at all, but some others on this board seem to have that line of thinking). There are a lot of schools in the mix for very few slots (maybe 1 or 2 over the next decade with how the AAU has been expanding), so you need to know your competition and where you stand. Like I've said, I know that Miami in particular is very high on the overall AAU metrics in the same way BU was a couple of years ago, so that's one very clear competitor already (much less the public flagship schools across the country that are all jockeying for position).

In addition to what you mentioned above, part of Nebraska's demise was that the University of Nebraska Medical School in Omaha was counted as a separate school, and Nebraska apparently chose to keep them separate (they have different leadership). My understanding is that UCONN has its medical center structured under the same leadership to help circumvent this issue. I could be wrong on the last point.