Delany: AAU Membership Required For Admission

[Rappin'Rodney]

So when does the B1G dump Nebraska ??

Probably when UNL ends its commitment to spending on research like an AAU member. In 2013, one year after Nebraska was booted from the AAU for 1) having too much of its total research invested in non-peer reviewed agriculture research and 2) being dinged for not having its medical center under the direct auspices of the flagship campus, what does the UNL campus leadership do? They decide to break ground on a $323 million cancer research center on the Lincoln campus. So even though Nebraska lost its membership, they're still spending like they're an AAU member. That's what UConn needs to do, and that's exactly what the university is doing.

 

[buddy]

As an alum, the only thing I truly care about is Uconn increasing its academic prestige and AAU membership would greatly enhance that.
Don't get me wrong, I hope our athletics keep improving but once you're out of college and in the workforce, where you went to school matters more than how many championships or bowl games they won.

No one ever heard or cared about UConn where I worked until the 1999 national championship. UConn became a name after that night and it was after that that my work became recognized. Then more UConn alumni were hired and we were able to then promote UConn even more. National sports recognition matters, unless you are a graduate of an Ivy league school and only an Ivy league school. None of the rest matter.

 

[whaler11]

Let's not pretend this is irrelevant. If B1G officials go on record under oath in a trial saying that their academic affiliations are why they are not a cartel forbidden by antitrust law, it's not easy to turn around within a few years and repudiate that by taking a school that doesn't meet their stated academic requirements.

LOL because the Big 10 schools don't control AAU membership... so the academic standards are based on membership that the same universities who would offer a Big 10 invite control.

I wouldn't lose any sleep over this one.

 

[Dooley]

Let's not pretend this is irrelevant. If B1G officials go on record under oath in a trial saying that their academic affiliations are why they are not a cartel forbidden by antitrust law, it's not easy to turn around within a few years and repudiate that by taking a school that doesn't meet their stated academic requirements.

Yup. If Delany says, under oath, that AAU membership at the time of application is a requirement for B1G membership, then it's an awfully tougher sell to admit a non-AAU school. Yes, the B1G can admit anyone they want. But now that we have this particular criteria established under oath, it opens up the possibility of lawsuits against the B1G if a non-AAU school is ever accepted into the conference.

The slogan is no longer B1G or bust. It's AAU or bust. The recently passed $1.5B funding bill makes absolute sense now.

 

[whaler11]

Delany also said the Big 10 would stop sponsoring sports if players got paid. Does anyone believe that one too?

 

[jostar1]

I'd like to know his exact words myself.

"There are no restrictions regarding expansion - potential additions are not required to be in the AAU, and they do not have to be in (or adjacent to) the eight Big Ten states," league spokesman Scott Chipman wrote in an e-mail. Removing the AAU and geographic limitations means the Big Ten can add any school from anywhere in the country.

http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/525178.html?nav=742

The story is dated December 16, 2009. Unfortunately, you have to be a subscriber to read it.

 

[kyleslamb]

"There are no restrictions regarding expansion - potential additions are not required to be in the AAU, and they do not have to be in (or adjacent to) the eight Big Ten states," league spokesman Scott Chipman wrote in an e-mail. Removing the AAU and geographic limitations means the Big Ten can add any school from anywhere in the country.

http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/525178.html?nav=742

The story is dated December 16, 2009. Unfortunately, you have to be a subscriber to read it.

Thanks. I looked for his response to me and I didn't still have it in my inbox. I must have deleted it when I did some spring cleaning a couple years ago. I thought I had remembered seeing this type of response elsewhere, though.

 

[Fishy]

I'm sure it's an unwritten standard.

To get into the Big Ten, you have to be an AAU member or have a large mural of Jesus just beyond one of your end zones. The former isn't written in stone to allow for the admission of the latter.

 

[kyleslamb]

I'm sure it's an unwritten standard.

To get into the Big Ten, you have to be an AAU member or have a large mural of Jesus just beyond one of your end zones. The former isn't written in stone to allow for the admission of the latter.

I don't necessarily think this would be true, as I believe there are exceptions, but I'm going to like the post for the sheer awesomeness of it anyhow.

 

[chitown76]

Today the big requires a school to be a aau member but maybe tomorrow the bigs standards are relaxed a bit and they look at the body of work. That's not out of the equation. Illinois wants Georgia Tech as a member sports only has a little to do with this UConn is making great strides in academics and I'm sure it will payoff.

 

[chitown76]

The big was aware of Nebraska loosing aau status and people are aware of Notre Dame to the big those are two examples on how the big has relaxed its standards so tomorrow is a new day and things can change. You need more than Rutgers to have control in the northeast and UConn fits the bill. The state would not poor in hundreds of millions of dollars in education just for the hell of it

 

[chitown76]

Illinois wants Georgia Tech as a member both are great engineering schools but that's very unlikely. So much would have to happen for that to become reality (like a 20 team conference). I still feel that UCONN has a chance just because of location you guys are prime real estate in the northeast that's Delaney's target and states that connect there's only a few routes the big can take have faith brothers don't give up yet

 

[Kolumbo]

If AAU and contigous were etched in stone, Delaney would have convinced McGill and Toronto to change over to American football by now. I assume Canada being "contigous" satisfies that requisite.

 

[Calamitous]

This deserves its own thread. Put the question to bed, here it is straight from the source while under oath, AAU membership is required for admission to the B1G:

Andy Staples ‏@Andy_Staples 24m
Delany said Big Ten requires AAU (American Association of Universities) membership upon admission. Nebraska was, but isn't anymore.

And geographic contiguity is another one (need to hear that from the horse's mouth as well). Those 2 really hurt UConn as it stands today. But who knows what the next B1G commissioner will decide to do.

On a side note, if geographic contiguity is real, then Texas is off the table because Oklahoma is not AAU, therefore no bridge to Texas can be made from Kansas.

Brings them back to UVa, UNC and GT. That most likely means they will have to wait 12 or so years unless the B1G can squash the ACC GORs.

Honestly, the more and more I look at expansion, the more I think it is mostly dead for about a decade. 1) the B1G wants cable subscribers in a growing market, geographic contiguity and AAU membership; 2) ACC likely won't move until ND becomes a full member (wishful thinking IMO); SEC doesn't care for going larger than 14 teams as it dilutes their mission as a rivalry-based conference... but may have to when all the other conferences start growing to 16+ members; and PAC doesn't like any of the options in the Rocky Mountains and have enough members to hold a conference championship game. The B12 wants to stay at 10, but the NCAA may force them to go to 12 if a conference needs to have 12 members to have a conference championship game. So if anyone expands over the next decade, it may be the B12.

So as UConn fans, would UConn take a B12 invite if the other school(s) invited were BYU, UCF, USF and/or Cincinnati?

 

[RMoore1999]

And geographic contiguity is another one (need to hear that from the horse's mouth as well). Those 2 really hurt UConn as it stands today. But who knows what the next B1G commissioner will decide to do.

On a side note, if geographic contiguity is real, then Texas is off the table because Oklahoma is not AAU, therefore no bridge to Texas can be made from Kansas.

Brings them back to UVa, UNC and GT. That most likely means they will have to wait 12 or so years unless the B1G can squash the ACC GORs.

Honestly, the more and more I look at expansion, the more I think it is mostly dead for about a decade. 1) the B1G wants cable subscribers in a growing market, geographic contiguity and AAU membership; 2) ACC likely won't move until ND becomes a full member (wishful thinking IMO); SEC doesn't care for going larger than 14 teams as it dilutes their mission as a rivalry-based conference... but may have to when all the other conferences start growing to 16+ members; and PAC doesn't like any of the options in the Rocky Mountains and have enough members to hold a conference championship game. The B12 wants to stay at 10, but the NCAA may force them to go to 12 if a conference needs to have 12 members to have a conference championship game. So if anyone expands over the next decade, it may be the B12.

So as UConn fans, would UConn take a B12 invite if the other school(s) invited were BYU, UCF, USF and/or Cincinnati?

Ah, UConn would take a B12 invite if the other school(s) invited were Florida Gulf Coast, Appalachian State, Univ. of Alaska and/or Singapore CC....

EDIT --
Honestly, the more and more I look at expansion, I hope the O'Bannon case crushes the NCAA, and Delaney's prediction of the BIG and NCAA as we know them dying (and excruciatingly painfully at that) becomes reality.

 

[Calamitous]

No one ever heard or cared about UConn where I worked until the 1999 national championship. UConn became a name after that night and it was after that that my work became recognized. Then more UConn alumni were hired and we were able to then promote UConn even more. National sports recognition matters, unless you are a graduate of an Ivy league school and only an Ivy league school. None of the rest matter.

If you work in business, medicine or law, you're absolutely right. But it really depends on your line of work. In my line of work (civil/environmental engineering), Ivy league schools don't matter very much. Stanford, Cal-Berkeley, Cal-Davis, Georgia Tech, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Rensselaer Poly, Tufts, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Illinois, Texas, Michigan, Purdue and even Virginia Tech are the ones grabbing the best job titles and telling me what to do.

 

[TerryD]

And geographic contiguity is another one (need to hear that from the horse's mouth as well). Those 2 really hurt UConn as it stands today. But who knows what the next B1G commissioner will decide to do.

On a side note, if geographic contiguity is real, then Texas is off the table because Oklahoma is not AAU, therefore no bridge to Texas can be made from Kansas.

Brings them back to UVa, UNC and GT. That most likely means they will have to wait 12 or so years unless the B1G can squash the ACC GORs.

Honestly, the more and more I look at expansion, the more I think it is mostly dead for about a decade. 1) the B1G wants cable subscribers in a growing market, geographic contiguity and AAU membership; 2) ACC likely won't move until ND becomes a full member (wishful thinking IMO); SEC doesn't care for going larger than 14 teams as it dilutes their mission as a rivalry-based conference... but may have to when all the other conferences start growing to 16+ members; and PAC doesn't like any of the options in the Rocky Mountains and have enough members to hold a conference championship game. The B12 wants to stay at 10, but the NCAA may force them to go to 12 if a conference needs to have 12 members to have a conference championship game. So if anyone expands over the next decade, it may be the B12.

So as UConn fans, would UConn take a B12 invite if the other school(s) invited were BYU, UCF, USF and/or Cincinnati?

I have thought and have been saying this since the ACC signed the Grant of Rights. I think that things on the CR front will cool down now for close to a decade, unless the Big 12 makes a big mistake and adds two schools for a championship game, thus watering down the existing schools' annual TV payments.

4x16 is a blogger and message board pipe dream. There are too many parochial interests (Texas, North Carolina, FSU, ND) among the major players in CR for that to happen.

 

[noeynox]

And geographic contiguity is another one (need to hear that from the horse's mouth as well).



So as UConn fans, would UConn take a B12 invite if the other school(s) invited were BYU, UCF, USF and/or Cincinnati?

You take it, and you say Thank you sir, may I have another.

 

[Dooley]

And geographic contiguity is another one (need to hear that from the horse's mouth as well). Those 2 really hurt UConn as it stands today. But who knows what the next B1G commissioner will decide to do.

On a side note, if geographic contiguity is real, then Texas is off the table because Oklahoma is not AAU, therefore no bridge to Texas can be made from Kansas.

Brings them back to UVa, UNC and GT. That most likely means they will have to wait 12 or so years unless the B1G can squash the ACC GORs.

Honestly, the more and more I look at expansion, the more I think it is mostly dead for about a decade. 1) the B1G wants cable subscribers in a growing market, geographic contiguity and AAU membership; 2) ACC likely won't move until ND becomes a full member (wishful thinking IMO); SEC doesn't care for going larger than 14 teams as it dilutes their mission as a rivalry-based conference... but may have to when all the other conferences start growing to 16+ members; and PAC doesn't like any of the options in the Rocky Mountains and have enough members to hold a conference championship game. The B12 wants to stay at 10, but the NCAA may force them to go to 12 if a conference needs to have 12 members to have a conference championship game. So if anyone expands over the next decade, it may be the B12.

So as UConn fans, would UConn take a B12 invite if the other school(s) invited were BYU, UCF, USF and/or Cincinnati?

UCONN would (and should) accept any invite from any P5 conference that offers. Even if we stick out like a sore thumb culturally and geographically.

 

[Javi525]

No one ever heard or cared about UConn where I worked until the 1999 national championship. UConn became a name after that night and it was after that that my work became recognized. Then more UConn alumni were hired and we were able to then promote UConn even more. National sports recognition matters, unless you are a graduate of an Ivy league school and only an Ivy league school. None of the rest matter.

I understand your point about sports being a vehicle for marketing the school to increase enrollment. But the perceived quality of the education at a school does matter. Uconn is a good academic school regardless of sports. If you're a hiring manager and all things being equal, would you hire someone from an SEC school (not Vandy) or a BIG school? Big 12 or ACC? I see it all the time where a company will recruit at specific schools because of the quality of the candidates regardless of their sports.

Not sure what your line of work is but I'm sure you got the interview because of your resume (or network) and got recognized because of the quality of work you do. The fact that Uconn had won was an "ice breaker" to help whoever makes the decisions get comfortable with you on a personal level.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

As an alum, the only thing I truly care about is Uconn increasing its academic prestige and AAU membership would greatly enhance that.
Don't get me wrong, I hope our athletics keep improving but once you're out of college and in the workforce, where you went to school matters more than how many championships or bowl games they won.

After your first couple jobs it doesn't matter where you went, but what you've done and where you've done it professionally.

UConn gaining academic recognition is nice, I guess, but I'd rather the athletic teams win.

 

[clmssun]

On a side note, if geographic contiguity is real, then Texas is off the table because Oklahoma is not AAU, therefore no bridge to Texas can be made from Kansas.

Geographic contiguity is a hallmark of conference strength and stability. The B1G, Pac-12, and SEC are all contiguous. The ACC added BC on an island, but next added Pitt and Syracuse and had contiguity again... until Maryland's departure. But then adding Louisville provided a land bridge to "reach out" to Notre Dame. And, of course, the Big East/AAC had/has great gaps in contiguity and has been subsequently picked apart. The Big XII had an orderly contiguous footprint in the central United States until other issues blew them up; now their footprint is a mess, and most folks (including me and including several Big XII fans) label the Big XII as the most unstable conference right now.

Brings them back to UVa, UNC and GT. That most likely means they will have to wait 12 or so years unless the B1G can squash the ACC GORs.

1) That gets to be tricky argument when B1G pioneered Grants of Rights in college athletics media contracts. 2) That also requires genuine interest on behalf of the desired schools

Honestly, the more and more I look at expansion, the more I think it is mostly dead for about a decade. 1) the B1G wants cable subscribers in a growing market, geographic contiguity and AAU membership; 2) ACC likely won't move until ND becomes a full member (wishful thinking IMO);

If/when the conference championship game rules are relaxed (whereby the ACC could eliminate divisions and have their "top two" teams play the conference championship game), I think the ACC could then invite UConn. No, I am not banking on Notre Dame going all-in; rather, with Notre Dame playing 5 ACC games per year, a 15 (full-time) member ACC allows Notre Dame to circulate through the conference precisely in three-year cycles.

SEC doesn't care for going larger than 14 teams as it dilutes their mission as a rivalry-based conference...

If the SEC still gave a flip about rivalries (in terms of expansion targets), it would look toward Florida State and Clemson or it would have pursued Texas to accompany Texas A&M, not Missouri. The only rivalry South Carolina brought to the SEC was Georgia (and Georgia would have disputed that as a rivalry 20 years ago). Arkansas has been an exciting addition to the SEC, but they did not bring any rivalries with them. Now, perhaps more to your point, I do think the SEC sees the value of its long-standing rivalries and recognizes that going beyond 14 teams *while*only*playing*8*conference*games* dilutes them; we agree there, I think.

but may have to when all the other conferences start growing to 16+ members;

Delany and Slive (and presumably Scott, and I think you can also include Swofford; not as sure about Bowlsby) are not ignorant or stupid. I am pretty sure they both recall the WAC's failure as a 16-team conference (and now its dissolution). I have read zero credible information to suggest that 16-team (or larger) conferences will be happening. Where I read that stuff repeatedly is on message boards (like this) and Twitter. But it always starts out as someone playing "fantasy commissioner" with no basis in the real commissioners. Has anyone EVER heard the word "POD" come out of Delany's or Slive's mouths? Yet every basement blogger starts talking about pods as if it is fait accompli and the panacea to all scheduling concerns for 16-team conferences. The scheduling concerns are real; the "pod" panacea is fiction.

and PAC doesn't like any of the options in the Rocky Mountains and have enough members to hold a conference championship game. The B12 wants to stay at 10, but the NCAA may force them to go to 12 if a conference needs to have 12 members to have a conference championship game. So if anyone expands over the next decade, it may be the B12.

So as UConn fans, would UConn take a B12 invite if the other school(s) invited were BYU, UCF, USF and/or Cincinnati?

Yes, the Big XII will probably expand or eventually fade into oblivion (or outright dissolve).

 

[Ldandy]

The WAC is a bad example of why a 16 Team Conference could not work today. The WAC's Failure was due more to mismatched interests, and lack of resources. No one outside of the conference footprint gave a crap about WAC Sports or schools. The B1G and SEC are both at 14 Teams. Adding 2 quality additions to either would spell doom for those conferences as well?

 

[clmssun]

The WAC is a bad example of why a 16 Team Conference could not work today. The WAC's Failure was due more to mismatched interests, and lack of resources. No one outside of the conference footprint gave a crap about WAC Sports or schools. The B1G and SEC are both at 14 Teams. Adding 2 quality additions to either would spell doom for those conferences as well?

It is my opinion that the scheduling difficulties are very real, and that those difficulties and the overall size of the "conference" diminish the "unity" of the "conference." Further, going from ten to sixteen severely dilutes the role, influence, and "identity" of the founding members of the "conference". ("Conference" in quotes because it gets so unwieldy...)

The ACC has gone from 8 to 14.5 over the last 23 years, their original membership is "diluted", and it has become sport on the BoneYard to spotlight the ACC's problems and celebrate its certain doom. (In fact, Maryland officials have stated something to the effect of "This is not the ACC we chartered").

That's just my opinon, of course. As I said, I don't think Slive or Delany are stupid or ignorant. If they start *moving* toward 16-team conferences, we can all ponder, observe, and discuss this more deeply.

 

[Fishy]

Only an ACC fan could come on a former Big East school's board and whine that we're mean to his conference.

Un--believable.