VA Husker Fan
All-Conference
I don't really get this great concern about academics wrt to sports conferences, unless you're talking about the Ivy League. It seems unrelated. Nebraska doesn't have a great academic rep but has a bunch of academic all-americans (and some guys who probably never stayed awake for a whole class). FSU isn't really known for academics yet started a Rhodes Scholar. Texas does have the rep but I'd love to see Vince Young's transcripts. Schools like Vandy, Duke, Northwestern, Rice and Stanford don't seem to mind being in conferences with some good and some not-so-good public schools.
I guess the Big 10 actually does some kind of sharing academically. I never saw or heard anything like that in the Big 8 or Big 12. Schools in the same state system will share, but whether they are in the same conference has no bearing on that.
It sounds to me like it is just some posturing by school presidents to pretend that major sports teams aren't essentially separate entities from the school.
I guess the Big 10 actually does some kind of sharing academically. I never saw or heard anything like that in the Big 8 or Big 12. Schools in the same state system will share, but whether they are in the same conference has no bearing on that.
It sounds to me like it is just some posturing by school presidents to pretend that major sports teams aren't essentially separate entities from the school.