Mon, 01 Mar 2010 08:01:15 +0000

Over at Barking Carnival, horninexile did a nice piece on trying to understand how various universities research programs affect the ways schools may choose to align themselves in the next D1 football shakedown.

Another way the academic “wealth” of a university is measured is by its endowments. Size of endowments are, simply put, a fairly accurate barometer of the magnitude of society’s faith that an institution will continue to push the frontiers of human knowledge. The larger the endowment, the more capable society thinks that institution is fulfilling its core mission as a university.

Of course, this does not mean that schools with huge endowments have great athletic programs. But in the mind of the decision makers (i.e., university presidents), these are the schools who the upper tier believe they “belong” with.

For the sake of clarity, let’s look at the 2009 endowment rankings of the schools that play D1 football. These rankings are system wide, so A&M’s Vet school is included with A&M – Texas’ Med school with Texas and so on.

There are 25 schools playing D1 football that have endowments exceeding $1 billion. They are, in order (all amounts are billions)

1. Stanford University $ 12.619
2. University of Texas System $ 12.163

3. University of Michigan $ 6.001

4. Northwestern University $ 5.445
5. Texas A&M University System $ 5.084

6. University of California $ 4.937
7. University of Notre Dame $ 4.795
8. Duke University $ 4.441

9. Rice University $ 3.613

10. Vanderbilt University $ 2.834
11. University of Southern California $ 2.671
12. University of Virginia $ 2.557

13. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill $ 1.905
14. University of Pittsburgh $ 1.837
15. Ohio State University $ 1.652
16. University of Washington $ 1.649
17. Purdue University $ 1.458
18. University of Wisconsin $ 1.373
19. Boston College $ 1.341
20. Indiana University $ 1.227
21. Pennsylvania State University $ 1.226
22. University of Minnesota $ 1.077
23. Michigan State University $ 1.047
24. Southern Methodist University $ 1.035
25. University of Florida $ 1.011

Note how many Big 10 schools there are – nine. Only Iowa and Illinois miss this list. This goes a long ways towards explaining the “tightness” of the Big 10 Conference – these schools “belong” together.

Also note that there are exactly two Big XII schools in these rankings, and they are #2 and #5. You know that the Texas and A&M presidents know that their schools don’t “belong” with the others. The SEC only has two schools, one at #10 and Florida barley eeking in at #25.

Once again, looking at a list like this suggests A&M and Texas ought to be somewhere else.

Over at Barking Carnival, horninexile did a nice piece on trying to understand how various universities research programs affect the ways schools may choose to align themselves in the next D1 football shakedown.

Another way the academic “wealth” of a university is measured is by its endowments. Size of endowments are, simply put, a fairly accurate barometer of the magnitude of society’s faith that an institution will continue to push the frontiers of human knowledge. The larger the endowment, the more capable society thinks that institution is fulfilling its core mission as a university.

Of course, this does not mean that schools with huge endowments have great athletic programs. But in the mind of the decision makers (i.e., university presidents), these are the schools who the upper tier believe they “belong” with.

For the sake of clarity, let’s look at the 2009 endowment rankings of the schools that play D1 football. These rankings are system wide, so A&M’s Vet school is included with A&M – Texas’ Med school with Texas and so on.

There are 25 schools playing D1 football that have endowments exceeding $1 billion. They are, in order (all amounts are billions)

1. Stanford University $ 12.619
2. University of Texas System $ 12.163

3. University of Michigan $ 6.001

4. Northwestern University $ 5.445
5. Texas A&M University System $ 5.084

6. University of California $ 4.937
7. University of Notre Dame $ 4.795
8. Duke University $ 4.441

9. Rice University $ 3.613

10. Vanderbilt University $ 2.834
11. University of Southern California $ 2.671
12. University of Virginia $ 2.557

13. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill $ 1.905
14. University of Pittsburgh $ 1.837
15. Ohio State University $ 1.652
16. University of Washington $ 1.649
17. Purdue University $ 1.458
18. University of Wisconsin $ 1.373
19. Boston College $ 1.341
20. Indiana University $ 1.227
21. Pennsylvania State University $ 1.226
22. University of Minnesota $ 1.077
23. Michigan State University $ 1.047
24. Southern Methodist University $ 1.035
25. University of Florida $ 1.011

Note how many Big 10 schools there are – nine. Only Iowa and Illinois miss this list. This goes a long ways towards explaining the “tightness” of the Big 10 Conference – these schools “belong” together.

Also note that there are exactly two Big XII schools in these rankings, and they are #2 and #5. You know that the Texas and A&M presidents know that their schools don’t “belong” with the others. The SEC only has two schools, one at #10 and Florida barley eeking in at #25.

Once again, looking at a list like this suggests A&M and Texas ought to be somewhere else.