Quote:
Originally Posted by
tj100 
Yeah, no deal.
Kansas doesn't have nearly enough juice to bring a friend along.
A couple things to consider about KU.
- They're not tied together and there wouldn't be any real political roadblocks to prevent KU from leaving KSU. The state would never put KU in jeopardy if it meant trying to package them with KSU. They'll try anyway, but it would be a formality.
- They're the second most profitable athletic department in the Big 12 and they're in the middle of roughly $175m of stadium and football facility renovations. They're not a good football school, but they have more potential than their history indicates. On the negative side, their primary recruiting base is Texas, where they pick up lots of the players that don't get UT and A&M offers, so splitting from those schools could hurt them quite a bit.
-Their basketball program would be a major asset for the PAC 12 to help secure a better conference television package. The PAC 12 has been stuck with Fox, and if the Big 12 breaks up, that opens up the Monday and Wednesday primetime slots on ESPN that the Big 12 currently has. ESPN will need schools that can play 9PM Eastern games, and the PAC12 would be their only good option with KU/UCLA/UA.
-They've been an AAU member since 1909 and get pretty solid amounts of research grants. A move to a better academic conference like the PAC 12 would put much more pressure on the state to fund them, and the increased geographic footprint would give them a wider pool of out-of-state residents for increased tuition revenue and better test scores.
-If K-State ended up in a non-BSC conference like many expect, KU would get an increased share of state education funding and raise their admission standards, which would create more separation academically. Kansas schools use really, really low admission standards for in-state students (you basically need a pulse), and a large part of that is because KU and KSU have been in the same conference. The Kansas Board of Regents wanted to keep admission standards the same for them because of that, and there just aren't enough people in Kansas to support two tier 1 BCS schools with quality students, so the standards are low to the detriment of KU's academic rankings, which have subsequently slipped quite a bit since the 90's when K-State started to get more funding because of their football success and attraction of students. Being relegated to the Mountain West or Conference USA would make a greater distinction between their attractiveness and the rankings would follow that trend. KU currently gets a bit better students, but KState still gets at least 35% or so of the best in state students. That would stop.
-Although KU doesn't bring huge tv markets, the markets they do bring have a much higher % of viewers who are college sports fans than the PAC 12. Most PAC 12 schools are areas with much greater emphasis on pro teams and college sports are a bit of a sideshow. In Kansas City, and the surrounding area they're a much bigger deal. There are actually more college sports viewers in KC than the Denver market that Colorado brought. A lot of that is also from the outdoor activities in Colorado.
Edited by StephenHero - 9/10/11 at 7:34am
