The head of the Big 12 insists there are no plans to add Texas teams to the conference, but Renu Khator, chancellor and president of the University of Houston, apparently didn’t get the message.
She’s still pushing for membership in the Big 12 or another high-powered athletic league, saying the school deserves a spot because of its rising academic ambitions.
“Sometimes you get defined by the company you keep,” Khator said. “You compare your progress against the schools in your league. Being associated with the highest group is always a good thing.”
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“For years, the University of Houston has improved its research and academic functions in its drive to rank among the premier universities in Texas,” the letter states. “We believe that its inclusion in the prestigious Big 12 conference would assist in this endeavor.”
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Five Big 12 members, including UT and A&M, belong to the elite Association of American Universities, which represents the nation’s top research institutions. UH, Tech and Baylor all hope to join the group someday.
UH and Rice, meanwhile, compete in Conference USA, a collection of 12 schools in Texas and the South. Among C-USA members, only Rice and Tulane are in the AAU.
I think until such time as UH achieves either Tier 1 status or AAU membership, its best argument for inclusion in a BCS conference like the Big XII is going to be its athletics. That’s assuming that the Big XII has any desire to add members, which in turn assumes that the Big XII is in a position to be thinking about its long term stability. Let’s see what things look like next year, when Nebraska and Colorado are officially bidding adieu. Mean Green Cougar Red has more in a long and thorough post that is largely pessimistic about UH joining the Big XII.