means that they don't really want to compete, period. If people keep rationalizing it through the lens of the parent institution of the university then they are simply settling for mediocrity. That's fine if people are satisfied with that, but you don't become the best on a shoestring budget. Up and comers may pan out and they may not. I'm in the camp of wanting them to pay more for a seasoned, measured quantity.

Someone brought up an anecdote in a thread yesterday that BYU struggles to lure the best LDS scholars to the university because of wage levels, and because of that the student body as a whole was of a higher caliber than the faculty. There is some crossover to athletics with that situation, if true.