re: Most Academically Improved SEC Schools

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Using a private school's lack of an AAU membership against it is kind of ridiculous. Many simply aren't research schools.

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Actually I disagree with this. There are certainly some excellent private Non AAU schools (Notre Dame, Wake Forest for example) but NOT being an AAU member is a strike against them. The AAU, fairly or unfairly, is the gold standard and there are plenty of private schools that are members, almost all of them being considered elite. AAU membership certainly says more about a school than many of the factors that US News considers and it helps even the field with the big Public schools.

You can be a great school and not be in the AAU but if you are in the AAU it is damn hard to not be a great school, especially since they started kicking some strong members to the curb in recent years like Nebraska and Syracuse.