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When Oklahoma president and Big 12 board chair David Boren reeled off the five criteria the league would use to evaluate expansion candidates, athletic competitiveness, fan base, media market and overall reputation were all self-explanatory.The fifth category Boren listed, however, seemed less so.After all, what do academics have to do with athletic affiliation?According to a pair of Big 12 professors, quite a bit.You have to bring something more to the table beyond academics -- but academics do matter, said Keith Gaddie, a professor of political science at Oklahoma.Youre judged by the company you keep, and you want to marry up rather than marry down.Its a nuanced thing. But its an important thing.Indeed, ever since schools began associating for athletic purposes, academics have played a part.Just before the turn of the 20th century, the Big Ten was formed as a public institution answer -- athletically and academically -- to the prestigious private schools on the East Coast such as Harvard and Yale. While athletic guidelines were implemented at the outset of what would later be called the Big Ten, the presidents from Purdue, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, as well as from Northwestern and Chicago, put academic standards into place such as restricting eligibility to full-time students who were not delinquent in their studies. Those have served as the bedrock of the Big Ten to this day.Even in recent years, the Big Ten has only admitted schools that are also members of the renowned American Association of Universities, a collection of leading research institutions that maintain a strong system of academic research and education. The only Big Ten school thats not one of the associations 62 schools, Nebraska, was one when it joined the Big Ten in 2011 but has since lost that status.Theres little tangible effect to sharing a conference with strong academic partners. Directly, it doesnt lead to more federal grants or extra research dollars. But according to Timothy Day, Ph.D., a professor of biomedical sciences at Iowa State, the intangible impact is significant.Big picture, the academic perception at the conference level is important in the way we think of ourselves and the way others think of us, Day said.Gaddie calls this the halo effect.If youve got several programs perceived to be academically strong in your conference, that halo washes over you, he said. Youre going to be judged by things around you.Gaddie points to what academic powerhouses Stanford and Cal have done for the academic reputation of the rest of the Pac-12. When Oklahoma was considering a jump to the Pac-12 six years ago along with Texas, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech, Gaddie said he compared the SAT and ACT scores of Oklahoma with other Pac-12 members.Except for Cal and Stanford and probably Washington, OUs average ACT and SAT scores were [comparable to] most of the existing Pac-12, Gaddie recalled. But you look at that peer group, the Pac-12 gets this halo effect from Stanford and Cal, even though the programs are not that dissimilar from those in the Big 12.Its not difficult to understand why academics this time around could especially play a key part in the event the Big 12 elects to expand.The Big 12s academic reputation was gutted when Colorado, Nebraska, Texas A&M and Missouri all left the conference from 2010 to 2012. All four were American Association of Universities?members at the time. As a result, the Big 12 has just three American Association of Universities members remaining in Texas, Kansas and Iowa State.That isnt all.Of the Power 5 leagues, the Big 12 also has the fewest number of schools classified as Carnegie Tier 1, which is based on research activity. Texas Tech, West Virginia and Kansas State joined Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Iowa State as Carnegie Tier 1 institutions this year, nearly doubling the leagues tally from the year before. Yet by comparison, 12 of the SECs 14 schools achieved Carnegie I, as well.This is the prism through which the Big 12s presidents and chancellors will be evaluating expansion. Its why academics figure to loom large as the league seeks to bolster the way prospective students and faculty might view the conference and its members academically.As you look around, you want to bring someone in that can lift things up, rather than pull things down, Gaddie said. You want them to match or enhance the existing reputation of your university.Along with Rice and Buffalo, Tulane is the only American Association of Universities school out there that competes at the FBS level yet doesnt also have a home in a Power 5 conference.But Gaddie, who previously taught at Tulane, notes there are other universities the Big 12 is considering that could match or enhance league academically that have superior athletic programs to Tulane.As Gaddie points out, UConn is a state university with Carnegie Tier 1 status.U.S. News & World Report ranks another Big 12 expansion candidate, Brigham Young, as the No. 66 national university, just behind Georgia and just ahead of Texas A&M. It also ranks the U.S. Air Force Academy 30th in the liberal arts category.Cincinnati and Houston, also candidates, are also both Carnegie Tier 1 schools, and the same goes for Colorado State and Central and South Florida.Above all, these candidates are being measured by the football they play, the markets they bring and the fan bases that follow them.But when it finally comes time to deciding on members, academics will matter, too.Were hoping for dynamic members that add value, Day said. All the way around. Nike Air Vapormax Flyknit Homme . McCarthy, a player who played some games in the second tier for Wigan at the start of this season, would go on to shine inside Evertons midfield, outplaying the man he was brought in to replace, on one of the grandest stages in English football. 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