Originally Posted by m21eagle45
I would be absolutely shocked if they flipped this rule. Big10 schools pool a lot of research grants together on the academic side because of their accreditation. These grants are worth many times more than the TV money for athletics. They won't risk that to make more money on athletics. Also, with the ego's of many Big10 Presidents, they see themselves on the same level as the Ivy's...They like being the exclusive conference.
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The AAU status is much more important to B10 conferences than football dollars (see the addition of Maryland and Rutgers). Not only do federal research grant dollars dwarf football income, but boosts rankings and thus competition for international students which constitute upwards of 30% of university revenue streams. While college athletics receive the majority of media attention, there are much more important drivers of these decisions.