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Message: [QUOTE="pj, post: 660981, member: 2524"] Indiana is the flagship school of a state with 6 million people. Indiana receives roughly double the external research grants of UConn. On B1G metrics, it would come out ahead. UConn's problem is it's a marginal candidate for the AAU and a marginal candidate for the B1G. I think we can become acceptable on both grounds, but there's no one factor which makes us a must have, or can overcome objections on other grounds. Why should Michigan and Wisconsin fast-track us to AAU ahead of comparable institutions if they hardly care whether we enter the B1G or not? And if the criteria for caring whether we enter the B1G is are we money-accretive to Michigan and Wisconsin, that's a hard hurdle to cross, given that they think they'll get $35 mn a year per school. If UConn can beat that, which is open to question, it certainly won't beat it by $14 mn, so it's not going to increase B1G school revenue by $1 mn/yr/school. The worst case scenario is UConn brings $20 mn, costing schools $1 mn each, but opens a new market with growth potential. Between the lack of a partner and the mismatch in timing between B1G decisions in 2014-15 coupled to the TV contracts and D4, but UConn AAU probably being a 5 year process and building the football brand and proving that basketball is not a Jim Calhoun thing probably taking 5 years, it will be a challenge to get UConn in the B1G. I hope Susan and Warde can pull it off. [/QUOTE]