My roommate at UNL got his PhD at U of Chicago. Lived across the street from Washington Park. So yeah, I have an idea what you're talking about. U of C was my first thought when I found out one of the Big Ten voted us out. I get voting your conscience, but this is a little ridiculous.
I am not overly familiar with AAU membership processes, but I believe it's a multi-pronged courtship. There is probably some "official" method, just like "officially" we applied to join the Big Ten, but the B1G recruited us as much as we approached them. It's one of those fun gray areas.
Ran into Harvey after Dinner tonight just off of campus, he was coming out of the parking lot and I was finishing my meal at Applebees. Since we were headed the same direction at the light on the corner I asked him if we would appeal the AAU decision. He said there is not an appeals process for UNL, the decision is final. He said it would be a great number of years, a decade or more atleast before we would even be considered for membership.
i'd rather we just flip them off and plot the demise for the back stabbers.