UrbanaBuff
Member
Well, I guess this is hard to measure. Picture the U in the 80s. Thug life. Gangbangers in pads. This overshadowed greatly the fact that UMiami was a pretty good private university. Sure football put them on the map, but for the right reasons? You can argue, as Mick did somewhat, that CU had a similar halo effect during our glory years.
I think you make some good points, but I dont see how it is possible to sacrifice academics for sports. Athletes make up less than 1% of the student population, and even if they all had the IQ of Alan Grayson, the impact would be minimal on the university. Maybe you mean financially, but most sports related expenditures are separately funded from the academic side. A great sports program costs next to nothing in academic prestige, but the benefits are profound.