Notre Dame, USF, Miami and ASU
As well as George Washington & UC Riverside.
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I didn’t realize that there are only 71 universities that have AAU membership. Pretty cool.
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I’m surprised ND didn’t already have it.
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It’s a really elite crowd.
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There goes the neighborhood… 
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“I will never join any organization that wants me as a member.” - Groucho Marx
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Notre Dame this year, BYU next.
Ha!
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Interesting cross-section of schools and ones that also play sports at the highest level (P5 for football) - 36/71 = 51%. Research dollars and collaborations within a conference (set up for sports) is real and in many cases, the research dollars of these universities exceed the athletic dollars.
Of course, lots don’t play sports at that level, like Ivy League, Johns Hopkins, Emory, Case Western, Stony Brook, Tufts, Buffalo, 2 Canadian schools, etc.
I was interested in the press release how they highlighted that ASU and UC Riverside are designated as Hispanic-serving institutions (large pop of individuals from Hispanic backgrounds) and that UC Riverside also serve Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander individuals. I think the point is it will help diversity in science, research, and higher education.
I’m surprised how many Univ of California (+ other Cal) schools there are: UCLA, UCSD, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, UC Berkeley (Cal), UC Riverside (new), UC Davis, UC Irvine, + CalTech, +USC, +Stanford → That’s 11/71 or 15%. NO Cal St. schools (like SDSU).
B1G: 15 (I put USC and UCLA in there) (all but Nebraska, who was kicked out in 2011 because the med school was at the Omaha campus, not Lincoln and focuses on ag research, which is not weighted as heavily)
PAC(10): 8 (all but Ore St., Wash St.)
ACC: 6 (Duke, UVA, GT, UNC, Pitt, Miami)
SEC: 5 (Vandy, TAMU, Texas, UF, Mizzou)
Big12: 1 (Kansas)
Indy: 1 (ND)
So, in some scenario where UW/OU were invited to B1G and bailed on PAC, they would fit in with research collaboration. The 4 corner schools, if landed in Big12, would increase AAU membership from 1 to 5. Big12 is the outlier in this academic Not really the fit that is probably desired.
I could see if Univ Presidents (who make the decisions on this) do place emphasis on research collaborations and associations why Rice and Tulane are being considered (both AAU).
- Rice is pretty small and would be a bottom dweller in many sports but is Houston for recruiting
- Tulane has shown promise in football and the New Orleans market is somewhat appealing but stretches a western conference even further east.
- SDSU is on the up and up (sports and academics), but this is an invitation only club, and the 11 other Cal schools might look down on a state school (and UCSD is already in). It does make the most sense geographically for sports conference and PAC needs SoCal for recruiting and everyone wants to play a game down there.
- SMU? not quite sure of the appeal except the Texas market/recruiting
All but SDSU adds a time zone and distance, but I know Utah and Colorado try to recruit Texas while Cal is the other hotspot for talent.
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I don’t know if Taylor Randall would say it out loud, but playing in a conference against other research schools is more money in the bank. One can only imagine the size and value of the deals being made in the luxury boxes during football season, basketball season, etc.
It was the reason for the meteoric rise in research and patenting revenue.
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Interesting timing on Notre Dame’s AAU admission. Now they can join the B10 and you get to keep the ducks.
Everyone’s happy.
FTFO!
You forgot UC-Merced, damnit!
Seriously, the UC system is the most impressive state public university system in the world, IMO. Our wunderkind President from the late 60s / early 70s David P. Gardner left the U to head up the UC system. Maybe one of the biggest promotions in the 20th century.
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Nope, not on the list (Merced): https://www.aau.edu/who-we-are/our-members. But they might get some basketball players from another AAU .
But I agree - great system that kind of feeds itself.
The value of AAU: https://www.aau.edu/numbers. Wow!
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Yep - I misread, I was thinking the roster of the UC system. It’s crazy all those UC schools you listed are in the AAU. Crazy high overlap.
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I wonder if Utah would have ever gotten into the AAU without being a member of the Pac-12. I kind of believe that the other Pac-12 AAU members wanted to make that happen.
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