be a part of it. I wouldn't waste a single second trying to conform the mission of our school to the now whimsical criteria of the AAU. If anything, I'd think being part of the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA), formerly the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), would be more valuable. And I imagine that getting invited to the B1G athletic conference would allow for membership in this organization, but I really don't know much about it. I just heard it's big time research and research dollars. So...let's get good at football again, fill our stadium for every game, become nationally relevant again, and maybe the B1G will invite us. Let's earn it on the field. Anyway, when it comes to conference realignment, I'm a straight up football meritocracist™.