“We want to play in an academic consortium in which we have like kinds of institutions,” Gee said. “That will be very important to us.”
Lack of membership in the AAU would not necessarily preclude an invitation to the Big Ten, Gee said.
“I would not say that it’s absolute, but we certainly want to have like-minded institutions,” he said. “For example, there could be some institutions that are really elegant undergraduate institutions that don’t meet the criteria of the AAU, [which is] made up of these massive research institutions.”
and
"There are no restrictions regarding expansion - potential additions are not required to be in the AAU, and they do not have to be in (or adjacent to) the eight Big Ten states," league spokesman Scott Chipman wrote in an e-mail. Removing the AAU and geographic limitations means the Big Ten can add any school from anywhere in the country.
Lack of membership in the AAU would not necessarily preclude an invitation to the Big Ten, Gee said.
“I would not say that it’s absolute, but we certainly want to have like-minded institutions,” he said. “For example, there could be some institutions that are really elegant undergraduate institutions that don’t meet the criteria of the AAU, [which is] made up of these massive research institutions.”
and
"There are no restrictions regarding expansion - potential additions are not required to be in the AAU, and they do not have to be in (or adjacent to) the eight Big Ten states," league spokesman Scott Chipman wrote in an e-mail. Removing the AAU and geographic limitations means the Big Ten can add any school from anywhere in the country.
