(03-11-2014 01:51 AM)HawaiiMongoose Wrote:  I think having decent academics is a necessary but not sufficient precondition for getting into at least some of the P5 conferences, if not all of them.

This is the a point. Academics is about what kind of political stink from the academic politics of the rest of the University a President is going to have to face, so its a factor that explains the reluctance of the President of "School A" to vote to accept "School B". For the Big Ten, there are two substantial academic snobs in that school up north and Wisconsin, which would generate two no votes plus other votes they could swing for a school not seen as sufficiently strong academically.

So rather than a factor that would pull one school ahead of another on a list of candidates, its a factor that would keep one school on a list of candidates when another school was filtered out.

Also, since it is about internal academic politics (and what the Presidents do for the majority of their time ~ Athletic Directors exist so Presidents can spend a majority of their time on being University President and only part of their time on athletics), there's the possibility that there are some schools could get in as a part of a pair (or larger expansion) when they couldn't get in as a single school, if there was another add that was a big enough bright and shiny object on the academic side to allay criticism.