<p>When Doug Flutie dies (a long long time from now) he will be remembered for two things: (1) an impossible pass and (2) the ‘Flutie Effect.’ In the hyper-competitive competition among colleges and universities for prestige and students, the ‘Flutie Effect’ and the ‘Tufts Syndrome’ are daily jargons. It is theorized that the ‘Flutie Effect’ raises awareness of one’s school and gives it the mystique of fame which, if persists long enough, turns into prestige. The BC alumni magazine had put out an article a few years back debunking the ‘Flutie Effect’ by pointing out that BC applications increased regardless of the performance of the football team. I don’t buy that explanation because applications have been increasing every year at almost every school. And then I thought to myself, can one ‘Hail Mary’ be that much more compelling in increasing a school to the national stage. What about national championship, or repeated championships? Surely, a school that won many championships would raise its fame much better than just one play in a non-bowl game, therefore attracting better students and improving the school caliber overall, and ultimately its prestige. So I checked every college football champion since 1984–the year Flutie said the famous prayer–and see how their ranking works out of them versus BC’s current 35th rank in the US News World Report. The USNWR ranking does not tell us what school is better academically, but it gives us a relative gauge at the “prestige” element. </p>
<p>1984 BYU (USNWR-79th)
1985 Oklahoma (108th)
1986 Penn State (48th)<br>
1987 U. Miami (52nd)
1988 Notre Dame (19th)
1989 U. Miami (52nd)
1990 Colorado (79th)
1990 Georgia Tech (35th)
1991 U. Miami (52nd)
1991 Washington (42nd)<br>
1992 Alabama (91st)
1993 Florida State (112th)
1994 Nebraska (91st)
1995 Nebraska (91st)
1996 Florida (49th)
1997 Michigan (25th)<br>
1997 Nebraska (91st)
1998 Tennessee (96th)
1999 Florida State (112th)
2000 Oklahoma (108th)
2001 U. Miami (52nd)
2002 Ohio State (57th)
2003 LSU (Third-Tier…!..300ish)
2003 USC (27th)
2004 USC (27th)
2005 Texas (44th)
2006 Florida (49th)</p>
<p>The average ranking for the 27 national champions (including ties) is an incredibly low 73rd rank. Even if we take out LSU third-tier status, the average rank would be 64.9 or 65th. In fact, with the exception of Notre Dame and USC, no other national champion’s ranked higher than BC. Even without sport Notre Dame would still be an incredible school with prestige in hand; USC was ranked in the top 40s-30s even before Pete Carroll returned it to a national power house in football. Although NC/ranking is not a scientific study, it does give me a feeling that football, or sports in general, quite frankly does not do much for one’s prestige or national ranking. There has to be a lot more tangible benefits and qualities to a school just to get students to look at them, let alone deciding to attend or not. Next time someone tells me that Flutie made BC the school it is today, I’ll reply “tell that to Miami and its six national champions, or better yet, the next ivy LSU.”</p>