yeah i think tim was being a little too strict on his academic requirements. penn state was a great get for the big ten, and is a fine school academically, but really not much different than, say, georgia, georgia tech or washington. actually some of those might be better schools. i think you could definitely add schools like usc, cal, stanford, boston college, kansas and miami to the list. really, if you could blast texas off and set the state down where kentucky or the dakotas are, wouldn't this be a no-brainer? texas is a great academic school in a conference with a lot of mediocre academic institutions. they have by far the best athletic program, including great athletic facilities and infrastructure for non-revenue sports - the same cannot be said for most other big xii programs. they bring a ton of viewers (basically the entire state of texas) while much of the rest of the big xii is fairly sparsely-populated. they're a huge fish in a crappy pond, and would be a better fit in the big ten if not for geographical concerns.