PAC-12 Upsets Big Ten for Top Academic Reputation After Conference Realignment
Some five years after what has come to be known as Conference Realignment, the impact on the academic reputation at highest level of Collegiate Athletics is becoming clear(er).
(Media-Newswire.com) - The Rankings: 1. PAC 12, 2. Big Ten, 3. SEC, 4. ACC, 5. Big 12
Austin, TEXAS July 29, 2015 -- Some five years after what has come to be known as Conference Realignment, the impact on the academic reputation at highest level of Collegiate Athletics is becoming clear( er ). According to an analysis performed using the 2016 TrendTopper MediaBuzz of the Top 419 College Brands, 10th edition, The PAC-12 now is the Top College Conference by Academic Reputation.
As you can see from the chart below, The PAC 12 toppled the Big Ten from the Top Spot, also leapfrogging the SEC and ACC.
2015 Top Conferences by Academic Reputation 2015 Rank / Change / 2015 Score
1. PAC 12 ( Up 3 ) 36.3 2. Big Ten ( Down 1 ) 47.8 3. SEC ( Down 1 ) 54.6 4. ACC ( Down 1 ) 56.1 5. Select Seven ( No Change ) 80.1 6. Big 12 ( No Change ) 105.3
Since 2008, the TrendTopper MediaBuzz College Guide has been ranking the nation’s Top 422 Colleges and Universities according to the values of their brands. Almost immediately, the Global Language Monitor, the TTMB publisher, began to see parallels between the value of a school’s brand and its perceived athletic excellence.
In 2012, GLM began a study of all the major football conferences at the time while looking ahead to the future changes then proposed. This was not necessary in 2015, since there are now only five conferences at the highest level of the game that matter:
• The Atlantic Coast Conference • The Big 10 Conference • The Big 12 Conference • The PAC 12 Conference • The SEC Conference
As before, the Patriot League and the Ivy League, two FCS conferences renowned for their academic prowess, are used as controls.
The analysis also gathered together the schools that have been overlooked by the Big 5 and hope to join one of them in a future paroxysm of conference realignment. The Select Seven schools include: Rice University, Tulane University, Southern Methodist University, University of Tulsa, University of Central Florida, University of Cincinnati, and the University of Connecticut. We treat the Select Seven as a separate conference for ranking purposes.
Highlights of the analysis:
The Biggest Winner 1 – The Pac 12 jumps over the Big Ten, ACC and SEC to the Top Spot. This was not because of the addition of Utah ( Net negative ) and Colorado ( Net positive ) with realignment, but rather because of the continuing strengthening of the academic reputation of the original PAC 10 membership. In fact, members of the PAC 12 occupied five of the top eleven spots in the university ranking.
The Biggest Disappointment – The Big 10, always an academic juggernaut only strengthened itself with the addition of Rutgers and Maryland. The addition of Nebraska was a net negative. Nevertheless, the Big Ten fell into the second position, only marginally ahead of the SEC and ACC. Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota and Ohio State all finished in the top twenty of the university ranking.
The SEC and the ACC both improved their academic reputations over the last few years with the SEC bolstering its already formidable academic stalwarts with Texas A&M and Missouri. The ACC added two Eastern academic powerhouses in Pitt ( founded in 1787 ) and Syracuse. The addition of Louisville was a net negative. Head-to-head, in the SEC vs. ACC contest, the SEC narrowly secures the win by a whisker with a last second field goal.
The Biggest Loser – The Big Twelve. Losing academic stars Texas A&M, Missouri, and Colorado while gaining West Virginia was a net negative. The Big 12, anchored by UT, a Top 10 academic school, now stands at about a third of the Academic Branding Power of the PAC 12 and Big Ten.
Methodology: For this analysis, the Global Language Monitor used its proprietary Brand Affiliation Index ( BAI ), the same technology used to measure global brand equity for the Olympics, World Cup, the Fortune 500, and others. This exclusive, GLM longitudinal-study encompasses the prior three years to better assess short-term velocity and longer-term momentum. The study is a Big Data textual analysis based on billions of webpages, millions of blogs, the top 375,000 global print and electronic media, and new social media formats as they appear. This is the tenth edition of the survey since it first appeared in 2008.
About the Global Language Monitor
The Global Language Monitor is the publisher of the 2016 TrendTopper MediaBuzz of the Top 419 College Brands, 10th Edition.
In 2003, The Global Language Monitor ( GLM ) was founded in Silicon Valleyby Paul J.J. Payack on the understanding that new technologies and techniques were necessary for truly understanding the world of Big Data, as it is now known. Previous to this Payack was the founding president at yourDictionary.com, and a senior executive for a number of leading high tech companies.
Today, from its home in Austin, Texas GLM provides a number of innovative products and services that utilize its ‘algorithmic services’ to help worldwide customers protect, defend and nurture their branded products and entities. Products include ‘brand audits’ to assess the current status, establish baselines, and competitive benchmarks for current intellectual assets and brands, and to defend products against ambush marketing. These services are currently provided to the Fortune 500, the Higher Education market, high technology firms, the worldwide print and electronic media, and the global fashion industry, among others.
For more information, call 1.512.815.8836, email info@LanguageMonitor.com, or visit www.LanguageMonitor.com
This story was released on 2015-07-28. Please make sure to visit the official company or organization web site to learn more about the original release date. See our disclaimer for additional information.