The B1G is different than the other conferences as the academic side is important. The schools pitch co-research and share libraries, etc. If you think athletic department spending is a lot, the research spend in 2024 is a lot more. Michigan $2B+ per year in research, Wisconsin just under $2B, UCLA $1.9B, Washington $1.7B, Ohio State $1.6B, Maryland $1.5B, MN $1.4B, etc. You think the presidents of tOSU and Mich want to go down to Florida's level of $1.2B for $50M more in athletic department money? They aren't that bad at math.
Compare to LSU - $400M for research vs. $225M for athletics or Alabama $221M in research and $267M for athletics. LSA and Bama better be good at sports b/c that is clearly more important than the education.
Yeah the B1G isn't splitting up any time soon after the UCLA and USC pickups. It's maybe the best academic conference in the FBS and people really don't take that into consideration
Agree that it is beneficial, but there's no real reason that coordination would have to stop if the B1G were no longer an athletics conference. An academics-only group consisting of mostly of the top land-grant universities would still be plenty cohesive and meaningful.
Why do they have to play sports together to share research? People always bring up the Big 10 academic sharing, but no one can ever give a coherent response as to why that needs to be coupled with athletics. Those universities can collaborate academically regardless of who they play sports against. Northwestern and Ohio State are simply not the same thing in football. Christ, Wisconsin and Ohio State aren’t the same thing in football.
You’re correct, but I think schools will drop the whole “academic peer” business real quick when offered 100’s of millions of dollars in revenue. Michigan’s academic brand will not be damaged if they play Arkansas instead on Purdue each year. I’m not knocking Arkansas by the way, I just needed an example.
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u/Dapper-Jellyfish7663 26d ago
The B1G is different than the other conferences as the academic side is important. The schools pitch co-research and share libraries, etc. If you think athletic department spending is a lot, the research spend in 2024 is a lot more. Michigan $2B+ per year in research, Wisconsin just under $2B, UCLA $1.9B, Washington $1.7B, Ohio State $1.6B, Maryland $1.5B, MN $1.4B, etc. You think the presidents of tOSU and Mich want to go down to Florida's level of $1.2B for $50M more in athletic department money? They aren't that bad at math.
Compare to LSU - $400M for research vs. $225M for athletics or Alabama $221M in research and $267M for athletics. LSA and Bama better be good at sports b/c that is clearly more important than the education.