We've heard it all before. "Cornell shouldn't be in the Ivy League." "It's practically a safety school." "You're not really an Ivy Leaguer if you majored in the Ag School." "Yes I am and you look like a pre-op transexual." What has not been discussed is where the Big Red would go should they leave or be kicked out of the Ivy League--it being an athletic conference after all. Stepping up to fill that void in the discourse is Cornell basketball blog The Cornell Basketball Blog. And boy are they setting their sights high.
Most of the Big 10 schools are large public universities set in collegetowns. The Big 10 schools not only excel in athletics, but they are also regularly ranked among the top national academic universities at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.Cornell is very much all of the above.
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?
As for athletics, Cornell is a national power in several major sports, including indoor and outdoor track (men's and women's), wrestling, ice hockey, and lacrosse. Even the Cornell men's basketball team made two consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament and finished 2008-2009 with an RPI better than a pair of Big 10 teams (after finishing 2007-2008 ranked ahead of five Big 10 teams).
Wow! They finished better in the RPI than two Big 10 teams this year! If only they had played some of them. And that certainly is a lot of sports Cornell is nationally competitive in. It's hard to think of a single Cornell sports team that isn't good. This is a brilliant idea. It frees Cornell athletics from the shackles of the Ivy League and opens a spot for a school that Harvard and Princeton won't be embarrassed to be seen with. I hear Northwestern may be interested.
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