The federal government delegates accreditation to six regional agencies. Ga. The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Post-Secondary Education provides the federal oversight of SACS and its counterparts. In theory at least, all colleges and universities meet the same basic requirements to maintain accreditation. No law mandates accreditation, but students who attend an unaccredited institution cannot draw federal financial aid, and accredited schools will not accept credits or recognize degrees awarded by unaccredited institutions. Theory is one thing.
Reality is another.
The latter standards are judged subjectively by a visiting peer review committee of a dozen to two dozen members who spend only a few days on campus. A university knows in advance who will serve on the peer committee and can remove an unfriendly member. The peer committees are just that, representatives of peer institutions. In other words, the committee that visits Grambling State or the University of Louisiana at Monroe would not be the same one that visits the University of Virginia or the University of Texas at Austin. Yet according to federal and accrediting agency standards, all schools meet the same requirements.