But I do think it's a more noteworthy factor than fans would generally recognize.

Utah is perhaps the biggest example as their research dollars skyrocketed with inclusion in the PAC, despite the same geography and history as before.

It's obviously laughable to assume every $ of research depends on conference affiliation. Like someone said, UCLA and Cal will still collaborate even in different conferences. Stanford is still big enough in the academic world to collaborate with whoever they want, whenever they want. But for schools like Oregon, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Arizona St, the academic/research side DOES matter.

Not saying it matters as much as he implies, but it also can't be completely ignored the way we often do here (seeing things through our fan-based sports-only views)