Following-up on my last post, it looks like there’s some new info to add to how we look at the academic side of conference realignment, and in particular how realignment impacts admissions. Two doctoral students at UGA have just presented a paper that looks to be the first stab at figuring out just how much switching conferences can impact admissions. The students–Dennis Kramer and Michael Trivette–believe they’ve constructed a formula using public data sets that allows them to quantify how conference realignment can impact admissions. What they found was schools that switch conferences experienced bumps in admissions numbers and test scores, and a slight improvement in admitted students actually enrolling, when compared to institutions that didn’t move (which served as a control group.)
More specific to the current ACC/Big 12 hoopla, Kramer and Trivette note that three years after their staggered entrances into the ACC, Boston College and Virginia Tech had 37% and 16.6% increases in applications, respectively, that were owed to realignment. Further south, TCU’s switch from Conference USA to the Mountain West was deemed responsible for a 50% surge in applications. This indicates that the desirability of enrolling at these schools improved, which the authors speculate is due to increased/displaced media exposure. Of course, what everyone wants to know is what the next switch (real in TCU’s case, potential in VT’s) would bring, though that’s beyond the scope of this work…
SLF has moved! Check out the full post at
http://www.secondlevelfootball.com/2012/06/06/conference-realignment-and-academics-revisited/
What are New ACC schools going to do after switching to the Big 12 when Texas and Oklahoma bolt fot the Pac 12. Could very easily happen and Big 12 would be rightg back to almost imploding again. VT is very well suited to the ACC in all sports as well as geographically and academically. No reason to switch just because a few recent VT graduates want a football MNC. Grass is certainly not always greener on the other side. I am an old school Hokie from the 60′s and have seen it all. Stay put and enjoy the ACC.
I think the ACC can be a strong conference and competitive with the other BCS conferences. But we in the ACC are serious underacheivers.
First, Commissioner Swofford has got to go. He is too provincial and entrenched in cronyism. The ACC seriously needs fresh young blood with fresh new ideas that are 21st Century. The league needs leadership that sets goals to get us out of the mire we are in.
Second, I firmly believe the ACC needs to upgrade the quality of coaching. If the SEC is the best BCS league, then the ACC needs to get more coaches from the SEC. There is too much complacency with what we have in the ACC, and what we have is not good enough to get the league to the next level.
from the SEC. There is too much complacency in the ACC with what we have, and what we have is just not god enough