How UConn athletic director David Benedict views conference realignment: ‘Landscape is changing’ (Borges)

[dennismenace]

It's amazing that a conference (Big 10) who never wins anything is dictating everything.

Maybe their business schools and acumen are a little better?

 

[ctchamps]

It’s not just NY metro…it’s all of NY state I believe. I use Hulu and I still pay for B1G network. So even cable cutters are paying.

For now. Distributers of content and content providers have different business models that don't always align with each other. The bundling of sports networks is currently the best option for distributers as well as individual networks but I can see a time in the not so distance future that the bundling model is not best for one or more of the distributers. Then what happens to these long standing high paid contracts between sports entities and networks?

It is next to impossible to predict two years out the landscape in media never mind fifteen years out when the ACC contract with its GOR ends.

 

[bendm]

Maybe their business schools and acumen are a little better?

B1G has such a mistaken sense of superiority it's almost funny. NW and UM were the only two universities in the same tiers as Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, USC in the PAC or Duke, UVA, UNC, Wake in the ACC. So what they're all AAU members? So are Stony Brook and Buffalo. Are you telling me those are better schools than nonmembers like Columbia and Gtown? GTFOOH.

 

[upstater]

B1G has such a mistaken sense of superiority it's almost funny. NW and UM were the only two universities in the same tiers as Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, USC in the PAC or Duke, UVA, UNC, Wake in the ACC. So what they're all AAU members? So are Stony Brook and Buffalo. Are you telling me those are better schools than nonmembers like Columbia and Gtown? GTFOOH.

??????

Columbia is a member.

What tiers are you talking about?

Georgetown is not a comprehensive university.

The AAU is an association of the best 60 R1 research universities in North America.

Don't pay attention to USNWR--it's total nonsense.

And this idea that schools like Wisconsin and Penn State aren't of the caliber of Wake Forest or UNC is really strange.

 

[superjohn]

??????

Columbia is a member.

What tiers are you talking about?

Georgetown is not a comprehensive university.

The AAU is an association of the best 60 R1 research universities in North America.

Don't pay attention to USNWR--it's total nonsense.

And this idea that schools like Wisconsin and Penn State aren't of the caliber of Wake Forest or UNC is really strange.

You can get a good education anywhere but people with the chops to get into UNC would never even look at Penn State.

 

[dennismenace]

B1G has such a mistaken sense of superiority it's almost funny. NW and UM were the only two universities in the same tiers as Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, USC in the PAC or Duke, UVA, UNC, Wake in the ACC. So what they're all AAU members? So are Stony Brook and Buffalo. Are you telling me those are better schools than nonmembers like Columbia and Gtown? GTFOOH.

Please note that there are two winks at the end. Just kidding. You need to chill out.

 

[bendm]

Please note that there are two winks at the end. Just kidding. You need to chill out.

oh i knew you were being sarcastic that wasnt meant at anyone in particular i just hate the B1G.

 

[bendm]

The AAU is an association of the best 60 R1 research universities in North America.

i know what the aau is and it doesnt automatically qualify them as "prestigious" undergraduate universities especially when 99% of the research is taking place at the graduate level.

i cant think of anything more random and meaningless than trying to somehow associate academic research with a football conference... unless the research is on the causes/effects of CTE!

quickly looked at the membership page and missed columbia and i'm not gonna get into a big thing about it but PSU was a safety school for the people i know that went to wake.

 

[BigTenFan]

B1G has such a mistaken sense of superiority it's almost funny. NW and UM were the only two universities in the same tiers as Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, USC in the PAC or Duke, UVA, UNC, Wake in the ACC. So what they're all AAU members? So are Stony Brook and Buffalo. Are you telling me those are better schools than nonmembers like Columbia and Gtown? GTFOOH.

Take football completely out of the equation and B1G 10 has Michigan, Wisconsin, Purdue, Ohio State, Illinois and Maryland as top Public academic institutions-throw in Northwestern and there is a lot of $$$ and research behind them

 

[CL82]

The AAU is an association of the best 60 R1 research universities in North America.

Best defined how? Most federal research grants?

 

[bendm]

Take football completely out of the equation and B1G 10 has Michigan, Wisconsin, Purdue, Ohio State, Illinois and Maryland as top Public academic institutions-throw in Northwestern and there is a lot of $$$ and research behind them

football + money = B1G is the entire equation.
AAU membership matters! (unless it’s ND)... Geography matters! (unless the school is from NY/DC/LA)…
They shovel a lot of bull $*** in the Midwest

 

[UCTitleTown]

North Carolina makes perfect sense for the SEC.

 

[olehead]

??????

Columbia is a member.

What tiers are you talking about?

Georgetown is not a comprehensive university.

The AAU is an association of the best 60 R1 research universities in North America.

Don't pay attention to USNWR--it's total nonsense.

And this idea that schools like Wisconsin and Penn State aren't of the caliber of Wake Forest or UNC is really strange.

Penn State is a back-up to your first and sometimes second choice for magnet kids out of Philly.

 

[Nostical]

Am I the only one puzzled by this? I haven't seen it explained.

We all remember BC lobbying hard to keep UConn out of the ACC to protect their recruiting advantage of being the only ACC member school in New England. We've also heard of Florida and South Carolina not wanting FSU and Clemson added to their respective SEC footprints---and that UNC or UVA would be better choices since they create new markets for the SEC.

So given all that, why would the B1G's first move be USC and UCLA, both from Los Angeles. Why wouldn't USC have lobbied against UCLA to protect their "advantage" of being the B1G's Southern California school? And why wouldn't the B1G have wanted to pivot after USC to another untapped geographic market (Stanford, Oregon etc).

 

[upstater]

i know what the aau is and it doesnt automatically qualify them as "prestigious" undergraduate universities especially when 99% of the research is taking place at the graduate level.

i cant think of anything more random and meaningless than trying to somehow associate academic research with a football conference... unless the research is on the causes/effects of CTE!

quickly looked at the membership page and missed columbia and i'm not gonna get into a big thing about it but PSU was a safety school for the people i know that went to wake.

I can tell you right now that PSU will have stronger programs across the board than Wake. When you look at the Carnegie Endowment's assessments, its departments are a lot more productive.

I was only addressing what you wrote about the B1G schools.

As for safety schools, typically a school with 50,000 students will be easier to get into than a school with 7,000 students. It's almost axiomatic.

 

[upstater]

You can get a good education anywhere but people with the chops to get into UNC would never even look at Penn State.

It's less than half the size of Penn State. You guys put too much on admission rates which are some of the most meaningless stats out there. For instance, Northeastern is incredibly hard to get into. I can count many hundreds of schools that are better.

In this debate, there are schools like Ohio State that are so much easier to get into than an ACC school like Clemson. Now go tell people who know what they're talking about which of these two schools has better academic programs.

 

[upstater]

Best defined how? Most federal research grants?

The R1 classification comes from the Carnegie Endowment. They're the ones that break each school down department by department, faculty member by faculty member.

It's painstaking work.

The AAU isn't throwing darts at a dart board. They go through assessments and data, largely from Carnegie. It's not a fly by night survey that is gamed by the likes of Northeastern (or Columbia for that matter!!!) either.

 

[CL82]

The R1 classification comes from the Carnegie Endowment. They're the ones that break each school down department by department, faculty member by faculty member.

It's painstaking work.

The AAU isn't throwing darts at a dart board. They go through assessments and data, largely from Carnegie. It's not a fly by night survey that is gamed by the likes of Northeastern (or Columbia for that matter!!!) either.

UConn is a Carnegie R1 university but is not AAU. I thought, probably based on conversations with you over the years, that the impediment to UConn being AAU was the amount of federal research dollars. I always appreciate your insight on the stuff.

 

[HuskyHawk]

You can get a good education anywhere but people with the chops to get into UNC would never even look at Penn State.

The gap isn't that large. UNC is popular because NC is popular and it's hard to get into because it strongly favors in state kids (42% in state, 10.5% out of state acceptance). It has a brutal out of state acceptance rate compared to peer institutions which inflates its perceived status. Illinois is a darned good school too, so are Ohio State and Purdue. Most of the shift we've seen is just demographics. Big 10 states lose people. ACC states and SEC states gain people, and thus gain applicants.

Does anybody here feel like Florida State used to be on par with UConn? Hell no. Auburn rated above Colorado? The Big 10 has no weak links other than maybe Nebraska. All those schools are solid. The ACC is now pretty solid too except Louisville. But the southern state schools are attracting way more applicants now.

 

[superjohn]

It's less than half the size of Penn State. You guys put too much on admission rates which are some of the most meaningless stats out there. For instance, Northeastern is incredibly hard to get into. I can count many hundreds of schools that are better.

In this debate, there are schools like Ohio State that are so much easier to get into than an ACC school like Clemson. Now go tell people who know what they're talking about which of these two schools has better academic programs.

UNC much harder to get into than Penn State, much more prestigious, much higher test scores on average, graduates make much more money on average.

 

[superjohn]

The gap isn't that large. UNC is popular because NC is popular and it's hard to get into because it strongly favors in state kids (42% in state, 10.5% out of state acceptance). It has a brutal out of state acceptance rate compared to peer institutions which inflates its perceived status. Illinois is a darned good school too, so are Ohio State and Purdue. Most of the shift we've seen is just demographics. Big 10 states lose people. ACC states and SEC states gain people, and thus gain applicants.

Does anybody here feel like Florida State used to be on par with UConn? Hell no. Auburn rated above Colorado? The Big 10 has no weak links other than maybe Nebraska. All those schools are solid. The ACC is now pretty solid too except Louisville. But the southern state schools are attracting way more applicants now.

I don't think UNC being popular or prestigious has much to do with the popularity of the state now. It's always been prestigious, maybe moreso in the past. For example my brother who is 50 applied to UNC back in the day. The other schools he applied to were Yale, Harvard Princeton, Dartmouth, Duke, Georgetown.

I never really thought about UConn and Florida State but when I was looking at schools I maybe would've assumed FSU was better than UConn. Everyone kind of thought UConn sucked academically back then. I would assume they are pretty similar now.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I don't think UNC being popular or prestigious has much to do with the popularity of the state now. It's always been prestigious, maybe moreso in the past. For example my brother who is 50 applied to UNC back in the day. The other schools he applied to were Yale, Harvard Princeton, Dartmouth, Duke, Georgetown.

I never really thought about UConn and Florida State but when I was looking at schools I maybe would've assumed FSU was better than UConn. Everyone kind of thought UConn sucked academically back then. I would assume they are pretty similar now.

Not sure when that was. Here is a report from 1986-87. Mean SAT at UNC in 1985 was 1070. Harvard and Yale were over 1400. Brown was mid 1300s. I found UConn's from 1984, it was 1022. UNC always had a low percentage of out of state kids as I understand it, so acceptance out of state is harder. It was not considered similar to Virginia or Michigan back when I was applying to schools.

https://oira.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/297/2017/07/fb1986_1987.pdf

 

[superjohn]

Not sure when that was. Here is a report from 1986-87. Mean SAT at UNC in 1985 was 1070. Harvard and Yale were over 1400. Brown was mid 1300s. I found UConn's from 1984, it was 1022. UNC always had a low percentage of out of state kids as I understand it, so acceptance out of state is harder. It was not considered similar to Virginia or Michigan back when I was applying to schools.

https://oira.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/297/2017/07/fb1986_1987.pdf

I think he was 1990. Those numbers are really surprising, I'm guessing the numbers are so low because North Carolina high school students had such low numbers and they weren't taking many out of state kids.

US News and World Reports had them ranked as the 20th best University in country back then and had them as the 9th best University in 1983, so it's strange...


U.S. News Rankings for 57 Leading Universities, 1983–2007 - Public University Honors

U.S. News Rankings for 57 Leading Universities, 1983–2007 - Public University Honors

Note: We have updated this post to include 2025 US News rankings, with a table showing how 122 university rankings have changed between 2018 and 2025. Below are the U.S. News rankings from 1983 through 2007 for 57 leading national universities. For additional U.S. News rankings, please see U.S...

publicuniversityhonors.com

 

[upstater]

UConn is a Carnegie R1 university but is not AAU. I thought, probably based on conversations with you over the years, that the impediment to UConn being AAU was the amount of federal research dollars. I always appreciate your insight on the stuff.

You're right, UConn is comprehensive research 1. You have to have breadth across disciplines and departments. UConn has this. It's the amount of research dollars that hampers them.

But the lack of breadth is what hurts schools like Georgetown, which are obviously excellent schools.

 

[upstater]

UNC much harder to get into than Penn State, much more prestigious, much higher test scores on average, graduates make much more money on average.

As I said, PSU is more than 2x bigger.

If you reduced PSU's size to UNCs, it would have higher scores.

As for application acceptance rates, not only is PSU 2.5x bigger, but there is one application for all PSU campuses, so the advertised acceptance rate is for seating for 75,000 students, not the 50,000 at UP. It's harder to get into UP than the acceptance rate shows. But whatever, it's neither here nor there. PSU has highly ranked departments and programs.