The U and Academics/Conference

[TX_UTE]

Knowing this will be an unpopular take, I believe all things even being close to equal, the U administration will prefer the association with the PAC-whatever over the B12-whatever. Per Wikipedia, “It is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU) and is classified among “R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity.”

Given that, while we may all “bleed red” for Utah athletics, the reality is our degrees all gained stature with the U being associated with the likes of Cal and Stanford…

[UteThunder]

And that will be to the detriment of our athletics, especially football.

[ALUF]

For a bunch of smart people, the Pac is pretty dumb when it comes to working things out as a business!

[Waybackutefan]

Not to mention who out there is an AAU expansion candidate? I guess some schools likd SDSU could get there eventurally. 

[AlohaUte]

The only AAU universities that would love to join the Pac 12 are Rice, Tulane, and South Florida. Are they Pacific? No. But they are great markets and great academics. 

[UteFanatic]

Yeah, as a fan, I don’t care about the academic side of this. I graduated from college 12 years ago. My only connection now to the university is through its sports programs. If they choose academics over athletics, then they will alienate people like me and they’ll lose sports fans.

I don’t spend thousands of dollars per year on tickets, TV subscriptions, and Utah apparel because of academics. 

It is shortsighted to sacrifice sports in favor of academics for an ATHLETIC conference. Colorado is a better school than Utah and they had no problem making the jump.

[NashvilleUte]

^ This comment from UteFanatic all the way!

I had no idea that my undergrad and masters degrees from the U had gained stature! Although I’m not really sure how that impacts me in the slightest… I live in SEC country and those at work know I’m a Utah fan and for some reason I’ve only gained “stature” though our success on the field. Go figure huh?

I think this academic status that has the administration so focused on sticking it out with Cal and Stanford no matter hell or high water really only benefits them and to an extent to the faculty. But higher education never only thinks about themselves right? That’s why tuition is such a great deal for students right? Wrong! As has been mentioned above, my continued connection to the U is just through athletics and that’s what will improve the likelihood that my kids will want to go to the U for college, or more importantly my willingness to chip in for out of state tuition.

Just because we associate ourselves with Stanford doesn’t make us a destination school like they are, get real. Athletics is the biggest marketing tool a school has and I’m worried our administration isn’t taking that seriously. Seems to me like we have the wrong people making the important decisions regarding athletics.

[UteFanatic]

Beautifully written. Couldn’t agree more.

[beaslad]

I sure know that I didn’t get a raise because all of a sudden the U was in the PAC and was part of the AAU. And this is why so many of the Big 12 fans hate Ute fans right now. They have read a lot of snobby message board comments and don’t want us to join.

If the stars somehow align and a Big 12 invite comes (spoiler alert: it’s not) then we will immediately be the most hated fan group because so many Utes held their noses up at their conference due to academics. Imagine having 13-15 other schools in our conference that are on BYU’s side because they were elated to join. We have never been in a conference where WE were the hated Utah school but that could very well be the case.

[UteFanatic]

It’s true that Utah fans and Big12 fans didn’t get off on the best foot. For a couple of reasons. Utah/Pac12 fans acted snobby (mostly Pig Bus, but a few others as well), and the Holy War’s toxicity spilled over into the general Pac12 vs Big12 discourse. Big12 fans took BYU’s side (obviously) and the arguing started from there.

If Utah joined, much of that would die down over time as the fanbases’s begin to focus on each other and not on conference realignment.

But, all that said, being hated isn’t a bad thing. Sports is as much about watching teams you hate as it is about watching teams you love. Many of those fans who hate Utah will tune into our games. More eyeballs is never a bad thing.

I’m going to predict that Utah-Baylor will be the most viewed Big12 game this year that doesn’t involve TX and OU. Hate draws interest. Bring it.

 

[beaslad]

All good and VERY valid points.

[UteFanatic]

Great. Your post made Message Board Geniuses. :facepalm: