<p>I know a lot of people think we should care more about academics than sports. Academics are very important, but so are sports. Remember, even if football doesn’t bring in net profits - which it may - you have to include factors such as alumni donations and overall school exposure. </p>
<p>If we want to become a University that not only academics but the general public know about, we have to do two things:</p>
<ol>
<li>Build up our sports program</li>
<li>Build up our science and engineering programs</li>
</ol>
<p>The sports program will attract more applicants and get the Virginia name out there - like Michigan. Our liberal arts programs are top notch, our science and engineering programs are not. Science and engineering programs are what make American Universities internationally known - unless you are Harvard or Yale and have 400 some years of history. Look at Berkeley. </p>
<p>Stanford built its reputation off of Silicon Valley and soon other fields followed - law, business, english, etc. In the early 1900s, if you compared Virginia vs. Stanford - no contest, Virginia would be considered much, much better. Same goes for Duke in the 1960s-1970s. Why do you think we have more famous alumni who graduated in the early 1900s than in the late 1980s?</p>