AAU Adds 6 New Members

Football brand is most important. That’s why Kansas isn’t going anywhere. Markets, though not unimportant, are not as important as football brand, though they provide a secondary aspect of desirability. Allow me to explain.

Regarding brands.

GaTech is a football brand with at least FOUR football national titles, and arguably SEVEN.

MORE than Florida State or Clemson.

WELL recognized brand.

It’s a brand that will thrive in the B1G.

It’s a brand with a long time rivalry with the B1G’s most desired target: Notre Dame. Ever heard of “Rudy?” In which game did Rudy attain immortality? Hint: the GaTech game.

They’ll pack the stadium for that game.

It’s likewise a brand that will certainly pack its stadium for other B1G games on game day, if for no other reason than those B1G schools seem to have a lot of alums in large cities.

Regarding markets, unlike Rice in Houston or Temple in Philly, or Tulane in NOLA, GaTech is not only located in a big market, but moreover, it is a football brand capable of actually DELIVERING the Atlanta market

Case closed.

Also, it’s AAU, and the nation’s top public engineering college, so it fits the B1G academic profile. In other words, its academic and football brands are both B1G caliber.

Finally, it gives the B1G access to Georgia recruiting, and Georgia is LOADED with HS football talent.

With all that in mind, GaTech to the B1G is a no brainer.

Adding GaTech and Miami will add two AAU ACC schools with the most football natties.

Any arguments?

Good.

NEXT!!!

Count me in… BSEE in 2.5 years on campus… :grin:

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…but its not just higher education. The state of Texas is stingy and cheap when it comes to all infrastructure items for their residents.

Just travel and you can see the differences

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This is some weak sauce. Ga Tech’s national title in 1990 was for the Coaches poll. Colorado was the AP and FWAA champion that season. Ga Tech’s last championship prior to that was in 1956, so using their National Championships as an argument for their brand being on a superior level is very weak. That is like saying Harvard and Yale are brands because of their natty’s.

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Graduation rate has nothing to do with AAU membership. It is entirely about research funding and faculty awards.

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GaTech’s last national title is within the memory of many posters here, including mine.

It’s not like Illinois where their undisputed football natties all occurred about a century or more ago.

And GaTech is a brand that can deliver the large Atlanta market better than any other ACC team.

Clemson and Florida State, the only clearly bigger football brands in the ACC, aren’t AAU, so the B1G will steer clear of them. They’ll both go to the SEC. That leaves GaTech as a top eligible football “brand” alternative, together with Miami.

GaTech’s all-time winning percentage, all-time bowl winning percentage, and number of all-time bowls are all higher than UH. They are also higher than UVa and UNC; two other ACC AAU schools that also have less overall football history.

As I said…only Miami has more claimed football natties than GaTech among ACC schools, and GaTech has the most natties among ACC schools if you count unclaimed natties.

They have a long rivalry with the B1G’s other MAJOR desirable: ND.

VERY strong case regarding brands, markets, rivalries, and ND inducement (others have suggested Stanford, a smaller brand with less history, would be appealing to the B1G due to ND inducement, so I’ll play along using the same reasoning with GaTech).

And since you think that GaTech and KSU are comparable, let’s take a closer look at that:

All-time winning percentage:

GaTech: .585
KSU: .458

All-time bowls:

GaTech: 47
KSU: 24

All-Time Bowl Victories:

GaTech: 25
KSU: 10

All-Time Conference Titles:

GaTech: 15
KSU: 7

All-Time National Titles:

GaTech: 4/7
KSU: 0

Consensus All-Americans:

GaTech: 21
KSU: 14

AAU Status:

GaTech: Yes
KSU: No

Stadium Size:

GaTech: 55K
KSU: 50K

So sorry Section102…comparing GaTech’s brand to KSU’s as you did is, …to use your terminology…“weak sauce.”

:laughing:

AAU has not stopped the SEC from succeeding.

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I want UH to be an AAU member but I understand it is a process, with metrics to meet. I trust that the leadership is on top of this and leading they way.

I must admit I will have a little more pep in my step when UH accepts an invitation to AAU.

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That’s not true. AAU tracks 6 year graduation rates for acceptance, as well as continued membership.

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That’s not entirely correct according to the AAU’s own website.

See here.

https://www.aau.edu/who-we-are/membership-policy

Undergraduate SIX YEAR graduation rates are apparently a metric they use.

Informational Metrics

1. Pell Enrollment: The Membership Committee gathers data on the share of full-time, first-time undergraduate students who are recipients of Pell grants.

2. Undergraduate Graduation Rate: The Membership Committee gathers data on the 6-year graduation rates for bachelor’s degree students.

3. Pell Grant Recipient Graduation Rate: The Membership Committee gathers data on the 6-year graduation rates for full-time first-time bachelor’s degree seeking Pell grant recipient cohort.

4. Graduation Rate Gap: The graduation rate gap reflects the overall graduation rate minus the Pell grant recipient graduation rate.

I wonder how our six-year undergraduate graduation rates compare with other AAU members.

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Different conferences have different goals and guides. Unfortunately, people tend to use the same values regardless of conference which makes their points have little value when discussing realignment.

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Oh yeah. That’s why the only time I mention AAU is with reference to the B1G.

That’s the only P5 conference where that really means anything.

In the past, I would have said that ND was the only non-AAU school they’d consider. Now that ND is AAU, I doubt the B1G will look at any non-AAU school.

Or as Charles Barkley would say…I might be wrong about that…but I doubt it!

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Way to go Cali, you have the most AAU schools AND homeless!

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Well UCLA and California does have a number of homeless students.

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The people who travel on this board never leave the resort or stay in the tourist traps on vacation.

We only see other campuses on college visits or if UH is playing a road game.

Our president is all over this.

:roll_eyes: :roll_eyes:

as bad as you think it is TX has some of the best road infrastructure in the entire country

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yeah…you’ve must have never left the state.

Our roads are so bad we make jokes about them.

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