A Kansas State blogger has written a long and informative post about WHY conference changes are happening now. (Hint: It’s about TV.) It covers a less-mentioned point: Conference affiliation has huge implications for the university as a whole, especially in regards to funding and fundraising. The entire entry, which I suggest reading, is especially relevant to Iowa State. Bold passage is italicized in original.
But realignment in the future is not just about making money as it is making as much money as schools that you directly compete with, for athletes AND students, and having access to all of the benefits that being in the “$20 Million Club” entails. … Will a decrease in athletic success equal a decrease in academic donations? In a time of budget cuts to secondary education all over the country, are many of these schools are willing to take that chance? Do these universities, specifically public ones, want to look like “little brothers” to their more nationally recognized counterparts due to their exposure via athletic competition at the highest levels?
I wanted to allude to this in the column I wrote for the Register last year but that segment was edited out for space.