Who should be involved in the academic consortium that the Big East should and likely is working on? Obviously the 16 current BE members. I would figure that a few regional D-3s should be added ala the continued inclusion of UChicago in the CIC. I'd like to see RPI, RIT, NYU, Stevens Institute of Technology, NJIT, UMDNJ, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, John Hopkins, and all the satellite campii of in-conference schools included. So Rutgers - Newark, Rutgers - Camden, UConn - Avery Point, and the like would all be included in the system. If we setup a comprehensive consortium like that, that has ties to certain Ivies, clearly Rutgers has its ties to Columbia and Princeton, then our coalition could and would easily surpass the CIC and the ACC in stature, size (I'm talking money & research), and prestige. And in setup the consortium as part of the split. I think with Georgetown, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Cincinnati, Syracuse, Villanova, Notre Dame, Marquette, and Connecticut involved we should be able to pull some heavy hitters like MIT, Carnegie Mellon, John Hopkins, and NYU on board. It would certainly make conference membership to harder to get schools like PSU, UMD, and BC much more attractive knowing that they will have research/academic partnerships not only with the expected schools in their conferencemates but also with the heavy hitters.
|