Those academic rankings have been about the same for every college. Tech has been stuck in the low to mid 70's for a few decades with pretty much the same schools. In the early 80's, President Bill Lavery got the reasearch park going. He knew Tech's growth and prosperty depended on research and development. There was little building construction on campus when I attended Tech during that time (early to mid 80's). The focus was on the research park. The Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine was only a few years old. Undergraduate academics are pretty much the same today as they were 40-50 years ago, the research is what has improved or elevated Tech's national academic profile. Football, especially during the late 1990's and 2000's defintely increased Tech's popularity and brand. I'm surprised that Tech doesn't have a larger graduate enrollment. UNC's research and graduate school greatly improves their academic reputation. The same with schools like Pittsburgh, Michigan, Rutgers and Maryland.