Rice is a top 20 school: basically an Ivy. And they are in Houston. Navy leaves the conference if a 2nd Texas school isn't added. The other four FBS Texas schools not in the P5 or AAC do not have as much of a brand, and none of them are very good at football either.
'In 2010, it was ranked first in the world in
materials science research by
Times Higher Education'
materials science excellence is a
distinguishing technological difference between us, and the rest of the world, and it ain't even close. cf, composites used in a p and w turbofan blade, stealth coatings, and, ummm, marshmellow fluff.
six plus
billion in their endowment, while being 'the second-smallest school, measured by undergraduate enrollment, competing in NCAA
Division I FBS football.'
they played the super bowl here,
one of the absolute best values in higher education on planet earth, and, it's in Houston, the fourth largest city in the USA, on the road to becoming gigunda in the decades ahead.
and, on another note, doesn't University of Wyoming play in the MWC, which some here think might be on a G5 path? it would seem, as currently constituted, that it has already passed.......the AAC.