Maybe you did not read the whole posting or probably I did not say it well enough is more like it, it's about the money and the big money being a Big 10 member comes through AAU joint effort research grants according to school administrators of AAU schools, seems it is much bigger than AAU members outside of Big 10 for some reason. If you have ever run anything you will understand the person at the top is always looking for more $. That is coupled with higher education is going to be in for really big downsizing over the coming years and the institutions that are most likely to survive are the research institutions is what I have read. It is the reason, IMO, that UGA and GA Southern started Engineering schools, they know what is coming. It has been said that the Big 10 intends to have more than one school in FL and the present AAU schools in FL are U FL, Miami, S FL. In case you do not know the Big 10 has a requirement that all the schools they invite to join have to be AAU members. It's obvious one of the reasons is financial stability that comes through research grants. Financial stability for higher education will become very important going fwd IMO.