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Unhappy with being shoehorned into the new Pacific-12 Conference at the end of the 2010-11 athletic season, the University has decided to leave the conference and join the Ivy League, effective July 1.
“We’re taking our talents to Princeton,” University president Richard Lariviere said in a release.
The University’s proposal, named March Madness, has been in the works since early last month when the University realized all its athletic teams would not perform up to the football team’s standards.
Joining the academic Elite Eight, rather than its athletic equivalent, would put the University far and above its regional rivals. The prospect of making the school academically elite is being used to combat the school’s stigma as an athletic team with a school attached.
“If all our athletics teams can’t be in national championships, then we have to cut our losses and focus on academics,” Lariviere said. “It will save the University a lot of money.”
The proposal, named the Green Foliage Experience, has been in the works since the University of Utah and University of Colorado were announced as new Pac-12 members July 7, 2010.
University financier Phil Knight has already announced Nike sponsorships for multiple academic athletics teams, including the Mathletes, Brain Bowl and Science Olympiad.
“I’ve got a reputation to uphold,” Knight said. “I think investing in students is the best way to do it. Everyone knows what Nike brings to the table for athletes, but it’s time to emphasize what my corporation can offer the common man.”
Knight also has endorsement deals lined up with the University’s debate team and chess club, and is looking to buy out PocketProtectors.com, the Internet’s foremost distributor of pocket protectors.
University Senate President Nathan Tublitz, who has been a longtime critic of athletics donations, praised the conference shift and said it’s about time the University regained recognition as a top-tier institution.
“Among such a group of renowned institutions, sports won’t even matter any more,” Tublitz said.
This move has rendered obsolete the now-back-burnered academic restructuring plan pursed by Lariviere, called the New Partnership.
“And you thought the New Partnership wanted to privatize the University,” ASUO president Amelie Rousseau said.
Rousseau went on to criticize the increased elitism of the University, saying the school should do more to be inclusive to high school students with all ranges of GPAs.
Other Pac-12 schools have taken umbrage to Oregon joining the Ivy League. A Stanford University spokesperson angrily characterized the Ivy League’s decision as “fucking ludicrous,” while a University of Washington spokesperson said it should have been the Seattle-based school joining the prestigious academic and athletic association.
In a related move, the Pac-12 has kicked out Oregon State University, which has announced it will join the Sun Belt Conference after this academic year. The move restores the Pac-12 to its previous number of 10 teams.
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