(08-30-2014 07:03 AM)johnbragg Wrote: (08-29-2014 10:05 PM)rtaylor Wrote: Good lord you cant be serious with this, do you really think anyone in academia takes freaking Louisville seriously? What a joke!
Ehh, the ACC takes Louisville seriously enough, in a way that the PAC does not take Boise State (or BYU) seriously. That doesn't mean a Louisville PhD is good for anything but kindling at an academic conference, but the same is true of all but 3 to 5 to 30 schools, depending on your discipline.
Until and unless Stanford says BYU is okay with them, there will be no BYU in the P12. Stanford holds sway over the P12 the same way Texas holds sway over the B12, Ohio State and Michigan over the B10 and UNC and Duke over the ACC. If those five say "hell no" to someone, it's not enough to get the required number of votes for admission. Voting no, or voting for someone else, is not "Hell No".
Hell no is an existential vote cast for existential reasons - turf, politics, or religion - like BC on UConn, or MD and UVA on West Va, or Ohio State regarding Pitt or Cincy.
Some schools have the power to make their single no count more than others. Stanford is that school in the P12.
The SEC seems to have avoided this because of greater egalitarianism and wider spread of political power in the league.
As to Louisville's academics, that are not laughable, nor are they great, but someone has to be at the bottom of each conference, and Louisville has the means to improve. Some schools have less control over their State mandated missions and so are not allowed to become exclusive.
Clemson for instance was your normal southern cow college with low rankings until they were able to make the decision to stay small while the State of SC grew, as they stayed small, the applicant pool improved and Clemson is really small compared to say UGa, USC, UNC, and NC State, or Tennessee. Also, Clemson faced no direct in state competition for high end students that might be attracted to an ultra private like Emory, Wake Forest, Duke, Davidson - so that's where they positioned their niche. It was a good decision for Clemson and even though they have done things to specifically make their rankings look better, the fact is that they ARE better than they were 25 years ago.
Many of your schools along the Appalachian spine have a general education mission that goes along with other missions such as research or overall excellence. Those are political mandates from the States to not just create egg-heads or teach snotty high brows, but to lift the economy of the area and the State.