They use to tell me on these ACC boards that being AAU was prestigious in gaining a university hundreds of millions yearly in research grants. Research grants that makes any school's sports department financial intake look paltry in comparison. The B1G can remain true to form requiring AAU membership as they totally ravage the Pac. Why would the B1G then disregard AAU membership as they ravage the ACC or anyone else?

until they decide that it is no longer a requirement. ND and FSU will not be rejected for being AAU outsiders.

lose its membership until after it was a full member in the Big Ten. So technically the Big Ten could say it only invites AAU members to join the conference. Now there are reports indicating that the Big Ten was aware that Nebraska would be losing its membership at the time a formal invitation was extended to Nebraska.

They still admitted them, so I consider that "requirement" to be more of a guideline.

regarding AAU membership that most people could/would interpret as being a "requirement" for joining the conference particularly with the addition of UCLA and USC (who are both AAU members). Assuming the Big Ten is not done expanding, its future actions will have great influence on whether people view it as being a requirement or a guideline. Plus, if it is a guideline as you claim, then we should see the Big Ten be willing to add several non-AAU members at some point in the future. However, if Notre Dame and maybe 1-2 other non-AAU members end up joining the Big Ten at some point in the future, then I could see people interpret the addition(s) as being "exceptions."

However would FSU ever join the B1G? Would FSU rather play games in Gainesville, Athens, Auburn & Knoxville or head off to East Lansing, Minneapolis, Madison & Iowa City? Any disparity between the B1G having a possibly slightly larger payout over the SEC would be more than erased by travel costs for all those teams in all sports. I don't think the B1G has any more chance of getting FSU than the SEC has getting Notre Dame. You look at all those potential Pac candidates left for the B1G. Washington, Oregon, Stanford and Cal are all AAU. The B1G will have no problem there with AAU requirements being met. Now let's look at the ACC. North Carolina, UVA, Duke and Georgia Tech are all AAU. If UVA and North Carolina both enter the SEC. Would the B1G then take Duke, Georgia Tech and then add VT & Miami to have four instead of just two? I don't know.

FSU has made great strides academically but when it comes to what teams people want to watch here in Florida UF and UCF are way more popular right now than FSU and Miami.

So was the entire SEC, half the B1X, and several other ACC teams. I never saw a UM fan in any Miami bar, but I didn't hang out in CG. I guess you might run into a Miami fan down there... Miami just doesn't have a fan following in Florida, even in south FL. That's when I lived in Miami around the turn of the century. If you couldn't find Miami fans in Florida bars at the peak of their popularity, why in the heck does anyone think they're huge targets for the SEC and B1X????? Back then, UCF was an afterthought. FIU had a bigger following than UCF in Miami. F$U and UF were #1 & #2 on the panhandle. That's when I lived in Miami around the turn of the century. I can see UCF being the most popular in Orlando.

and could possibly go past aTm in the next 5 years. That will equate to a lot of support - both from students, parents, etc. In my opinion UCF can become a very good program long term and if FSU decides to leave the ACC for the SEC, UCF would be a nice pick-up.

their own membership. Yeah, so they can reject teams that would smoke the B1G bottom feeders and cause serious headaches for teams in the top half of the B1G trying to make the CFP. So they can go around claiming that any interiority you might see on the field (vis-à-vis the SEC) is due to "academics." Meanwhile, it allows the B1G to cherry pick programs from blueblood football lines or a big market for it's expansion candidates. It's anti-competitive. The hypocrisy is there for all to see though. The game is up on this. They'll take on the biggest turd college football (Rutgers), but will leave a program Washington twisting in the wind. Oh, and now you have their complete "join or die" approach to drafting Notre Dame ($$$$)--a non-AAU school. It's disgusting, really.

That's a lot of television sets.

game last year in a vastly tougher conference/division. Obviously measuring tallest short guys at this point, but they are absolutely improving.