The OU community should use this as motivation to make academic progress



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By KEVIN HELLIKER

Oklahoma has the top-ranked team in college football. But its academic standing is, by some standards, abysmal.

The school can't be found among the nation's top 100 universities in the annual U.S. News & World Report rankings. In the rankings that many academicians take most seriously—federal research expenditures—Oklahoma isn't among the top 150 universities. Nor does it belong to the Association of American Universities, an elite group of 61 research institutions.

So here's a question: when it comes to college football's current conference realignment drama, in which schools like Oklahoma have been exploring their options, how much do academics matter?

On Tuesday, the Pac-12 Conference announced it would remain at 12 members for now. Oklahoma had held informal talks with the conference in recent days about the future. In an interview Wednesday, Pac-12 President Larry Scott wouldn't comment on the conference's assessment of any specific school. But he said that when the conference considers new members "the academic brand is as important as the athletic brand." He said the Pac-12 "prides itself on being best of breed academically as well as athletically."

Oklahoma President David Boren said the university ranks first among U.S. public institutions in the number of national merit scholars, boasts an average freshman ACT score above 26, belongs to the Carnegie Foundation's highest category of research universities and climbed 10 spots in the U.S. News ranking over the past year. "The Pac 12 folks embraced us warmly about academics," he said, adding that both sides decided against a marriage for non-academic reasons.

Television revenue from football games is, by every account, the largest factor driving the recent reshuffling. But in the scramble to create a select number of power conferences, some say academic standing is playing an underappreciated role.

The Pac-10 became the Pac-12 this year thanks to the addition of two schools, Colorado and Utah. As it happens, both rank relatively high in federal research expenditures: Colorado is No. 47, Utah is No. 58. "From the outset of our talks with the Pac 10, it was clear that we wouldn't have been part of the conversation if not for our profile as a research institution—as well as our athletic success," said Chris Hill, Utah's athletic director.

Until this year, every member of the Big Ten belonged to the AAU, the Ivy League of American research universities. Only after accepting an offer to join the Big Ten did its newest member, Nebraska, get booted out of the AAU on grounds that its level of competitive grant-getting no longer reached elite status. Nebraska argued that the AAU unfairly devalued its agricultural research dollars. Not merely an athletic conference, the Big Ten decades ago created a research cooperative linking member libraries, course materials and research missions.

"On our campuses you'll find more Nobel laureates than Heisman Trophy winners," said Barbara McFadden Allen, executive director of the cooperative, called the Committee on Institutional Cooperation. She said academic stature invariably figures into expansion conversations. (The University of Chicago belongs to the CIC but pulled out of the Big Ten in 1946).

While one conference, the SEC, has dominated college football's national championships in recent years, the crown for academic preeminence tends to involve a competition between the Pac 12, Big Ten and ACC. The Big East and Big 12 rank toward the bottom of the list academically. These two conferences are also in the weakest positions overall in terms of recent defections and potential future ones.

The major conference with a relatively low academic ranking that isn't concerned about membership is the SEC, which recently added Texas A&M.

John V. Lombardi, the president of LSU, an SEC member, wrote in an email that he thinks talk about the academic compatibility of schools in realignment is a rationalization. "Once an athletic conference is expanded by the addition of athletically effective institutions with strong television markets, then the members talk about the relative wonderfulness of their members' academic profiles," he wrote.

Officials of the Big Ten and ACC either declined to comment or did not return calls and emails seeking comment.

The ACC, whose members include Duke, Virginia and North Carolina, is one of the top academic conferences. This weekend, it welcomed two new members, Pittsburgh and Syracuse. According to U.S. News, both schools have fairly good reputations. Pitt ranks No. 58 and Syracuse is No. 62.

If academics were paramount, it's fair to assume Texas—No. 45 according to U.S. News—might leave the Big 12, which has limited scholarly distinction. One possible reason it hasn't: political pressure to drag along Texas Tech, an in-state rival that U.S. News ranks No. 160.