Even though the Big Ten plays mostly mediocre football, their value is driven by the number of people watching the games - and there are a lot. Counts vary on this, but I just saw a recent list of the largest living alumni bases and, with UCLA to the Big Ten, they have 8 of the top ten: PSU, MSU, MICH, OSU, Purdue, Rutgers, Indiana, UCLA.
The other two are Cal-Berkely and Texas. Surprised the Big Ten didn't just add Cal too then...
A couple questions not related to football: (Paco?!):
-How do schools like Cal, UCLA, Texas, Mich maintain their high academic rankings while also being diploma mills like PSU?
-How do both Michigan AND Michigan State have so many students? Are there no other colleges in that state? Does every citizen of Mich go to one or the other?
First of all, Cal, UCLA, Michigan, and Texas aren't diploma mills. They don't have 19 branch campuses that act as glorified community college feeder school for their main campus.
Cal's branches, if you wanted to say they had them, would be UCLA, UCSD, etc...but that's not really branches based on what we think of branches in Pennsylvania. Cal, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, UCSF, etc, are all part of the University of California System. They are all separate full fledged universities. Cal was just the first one founded.
The University of Texas System is similar in that there are 9 universities in their system, but they are also their own self-contained universities, like UTEP, UTSA, Arlington, Stephen F. Austin...each having their own full fledged academic programs and even their own Division 1 sports.
Michigan has 2 other universities under its control...the closest thing to branches...but each is distinct and are separate schools offering their own graduate and doctoral degrees. Combined total enrollment in those is another 14,208 on top of what is in Ann Arbor. Michigan State has no branches.
Most states outside the east coast don't have the plethora of elite private institutions like you have in PA and the northeast where the Ivies and all the elite liberal art schools are located. In many states to the west and south, the top schools are the flagship publics.
Cal and UCLA are the top choices for everyone on the West Coast not going to Stanford. Michigan is the top choice for that state and many surrounding states. UT-Austin the absolute top in Texas. Cal, UCLA, and Michigan are filled with Nobel prize winners and very selective admissions and are considered three of the top publics in the nation by everyone...and flat out 3 of the top schools overall. UT-Austin isn't quite at that level, but they strive to get there and have enormous public backing and huge...huge endowments. There's nothing really comparable to these publics on the northeast. The closest thing is probably UVA and maybe UNC.
Here are the actual numbers of students (undergrad / postgrads):
UCLA 32,423 / 14,007
Cal 32,479 / 12,828
Michigan 32,695 / 18,530
Michigan St 39,201 / 10,822
Texas 41,309 / 11,075
For comparison:
Pitt (Pittsburgh) 24,420 / 9,347
Penn State (University Park) 41,754 / 6,456
Here's the thing with Penn State, they have another 23,204 undergrads at their branches (almost as much as Pitt main) and another 8,210 attending their on-line school. There are nearly no admission standards at these branches. They have 73,159 total undergrads and more than half start at a branch and transfer. It's a feeder system.
