Actually, I only have one. But I just wanted to be the first to say that. But I do love learning and football. Anyway, on to the topic at hand. I totally agree with you. I care about competitiveness first, football prestige second, geography third, and academic reputation a distant x. In fact, I care about cool venues and cool uniforms more than academic reputation of the opponent. When we play Duke in football, I'm like "There's no upside to this. We better win and win big. I'm bored just looking at them on the schedule. We gonna smash them. I almost feel sorry for them." When we play Duke in basketball, I'm like "Wow. I'm really jacked to play these guys. I hate their guts. It would be awesome to knock them off. What a thrill." Neither reaction has anything to do with their academic reputation. And I imagine that the feeling from Duke might be reciprocated. But to me, if you are competing on a national level, there's no reason to get all worked up about academics. When Florida Gulf Coast beat Georgetown in the NCAAT, it was awesome. And no one felt sorry for Georgetown because they have to carry the burden of an academic reputation while FGGU didn't have an alumnus over 35. It was just fun, fun, fun for viewers (Dunk City). It also think many schools are living off of academic reputation over actual academic production anyway, so in that regard, I am usually unimpressed. And as we talked about earlier, there is a big gulf between the high end academic students and majors vs. the course of study actual athletes take (in most, not all cases). Schools won't let a another school in their conference due to "academics", but they will load up on OOC games with all these undesirables, at the same time playing a minimal amount of conference games with the schools they consider to be their peers. The fact that the ACC has 14 schools, but only plays 8 conference games is a total joke. The NCAA should set minimum standards for schools and players, and enforce them. Any additional posturing over academics is just a waste of time, and no one wants to hear it. I am a high school teacher and football coach and take both jobs very seriously. In our league we have urban schools, wealthy suburban schools, not-so-wealthy suburban schools, rural schools, private schools and college-town schools all in one league. And no one cares. Yes, I know it isn't an equal comparison to college, but I think you get my point.