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I don't think SMU holds a candle to any B1G schools academically. Sorry, who would you say we are above?

Academically we would be near the top of the B1G, but we are not AAU members and that is a terrible blow for any aspirations we have to become part of that conference.

I see 7 current B1G schools ahead of us in the 2012 U.S. News rankings, not counting the U of Chicago. Because research dollars matter more to the B1G, I'd say we'd be 10th or 11th.

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandrevie ... ies/page+6

Honestly I don't think there's anything special with Michigan schools. They seem to be overrated. Nebraska? Really they are nothing special. Really it's just 4-6 schools they can be proud of. I'm not saying we are top 4 in that conference but if we had the tv money to alleviate our expenses at school we could easily compete with them.

Our Carnegie Designation is "High Research Activity." Does anyone know if there are any B1G schools with this designation, or are they all "Very High Research Activity?"

AAU membership is not a huge deal as Nebraska got kicked out immediately after being admitted to the B1G.

If nothing else this thread will get plenty of laughs on Big 12 message boards...

Fun to dream guys, but this is ridiculous.

SMUer - are you crazy? a bunch of overrated midwestern huge public schools are not above SMU. maybe northwestern and michigan - thats about it. who would you say is above us? wisconsin thinks they are but they suck.

SMUer wrote:I don't think SMU holds a candle to any B1G schools academically. Sorry, who would you say we are above?

Huh?

Most, if not all, of them. Who would you say are ABOVE us?

Nothing like an academics discussion on a football message board. Stupid article to lump houston snd smu together academically but this subject gives me tired head.

Lol!!!

So now I think we've covered rumors of us joining the PAC, the big 12, the sec, I think I saw acc, and now big 10. Nice work fellas.

Yeah, it was hard to stop laughing long enough to post on this thread. I think the future will hold good things for SMU, but we aren't going to the BIG unless they expand to about 30.

ReedFrawg wrote:Nothing like an academics discussion on a football message board.

Yeah, I hate it when we let the central mission of colleges get in the way of college sports. For Big 10, it matters...

Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio State, Northwestern, and U. of Chicago are all way ahead of us in both undergraduate and graduate education. All of them out perform us in research. Their academic prestige is incredibly high and they often represent a mecca in graduate education.

Some of the rest of the schools, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan State, Penn State are around our level, in many areas they're below us (but also above us in others) but let's not pretend like we're actually a Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Duke, or USC. We've got a long way to go and have to catch up because the university's stubborn liberal arts focus (and I say this as an ardent liberal arts guy). Luckily for SMU, being a private institution might allow the school to catch up to other universities that are dependent on state funding who art hurting.

CoxMustangFan wrote:

ReedFrawg wrote:Nothing like an academics discussion on a football message board.

Yeah, I hate it when we let the central mission of colleges get in the way of college sports. For Big 10, it matters...

Which is why Maryland and Nebraska got in, right?