Not by a long shot. There, Virginia Tech engaged favored Florida State in one of the most exciting championship games of the decade before losing 46-29. However, when I spoke to outgoing university president Paul Torgersen last November, he was happy to acknowledge that the increase in his school's popularity was due in part to coach Frank Beamer's football program. I'll grant that the Blacksburg campus is a beautiful place, nestled between two small mountain ranges in southwestern Virginia, with limestone buildings like those at Duke or at West Point. But without its suddenly cool football team, it would be just a nice college with good academic programs.
Football puts it over the top.
This happens all the time. Places like Michigan, North Carolina and, king of them all, Notre Dame, have long achieved heightened status because of the ubiquitous presence of their sports teams. In short, there are few recruiting tools at the disposal of major universities quite like sports success. Best of all, it's free. ABC and CBS paid them, in the form of rights fees.