There is little to no connection between athletic conference and research funding. Faculty collaborates with anyone and everyone that will help them get more research funding. Look at all these nomad schools that improving greatly in research:
USF
Cincinnati
UAB
Houston
etc.
Those teams have been changing conference non-stop and it hasn't hurt their research funding at all.
USF
Cincinnati
UAB
Houston
etc.
Those teams have been changing conference non-stop and it hasn't hurt their research funding at all.