As the person who started the 'Cornell and the Big 10' notion three years ago, it's interesting to see how much the blogosphere has exploded in chatter about the idea ever since the Cornell Basketball Blog picked up the line of thought. Even IvyGate has jumped into the fray, while comments on the site have eagerly discussed the merits of adding Georgetown or MIT to the Ancient Eight. But seriously, now, I think everybody is missing my point. It's not that Cornell would necessarily be better served in the Big 10. It won't. And it's not that Cornell's football or basketball teams could actually hope to play to the level of Michigan State or Wisconsin. They can't. It's just that a certain subset of Cornellians happen to think that the school's Ivy League status actually means something to their personal sense of worth, when it doesn't. And pointing out that our school has a lot of similarities with a different athletic conference would merely help Cornell to better stand on its own merits, just like Stanford, Duke, Northwestern, Georgetown, or Rice. Besides, I like Cornell's all-time winning record against Michigan football. And I think it might make sense to keep it that way.Genius! By moving from the Ivy League to the Big 10/11, Cornell would improve their academic standing from the eighth-best in the conference to second-, third-, or fourth-best in the conference. But what about being competitive in athletics?
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