This whole acedemic argument is really stupid. I find it hard to believe that anyone will agree that Louisville is on par with Uconn, or anyone else within the ACC or B1G when you compare Universities as a whole. I agree Louisville is not a terrible school (160s out of 1000s of colleges) and is likely above average when compared to all forms of higher education, but Ville is not in the same tier as Uconn, B1G, or ACC. Louisville was chosen for athletics to enter an athletic sports league, and that is what it is. I don't think anyone should consider the decision to be anything but an athletic decision.
Stimpy, I also agree schools become very lumped in the rankings after you get past the ivy and near ivy schools, but I would make that cut off at about 15 - 25 schools. Those very top schools excel at everything and belong to be ranked as highly. I think you can group the schools from 25 to 75 ( or maybe even 100) in the same group, with the higher ranking schools having more departments higher ranked. For this group of schools, individual rankings of departments and graduate rankings are very important. Many students, including myself, choose a University based on rankings of the field of study they plan on entering. Speaking as a Pitt grad, I would take offence to not being compared or lumped with your own UVA. I think the STEM fields at Pitt, especially at the graduate level, can compete with most non-ivy type schools, including UVA.
Stimpy, would you consider the Medical School, Pharmacy School, or Bioengineering School at Pitt to be that inferior to UVA that I should be ashamed of my degree?
University rankings have there place, and if used appropriately they can provide important information to students applying for school. But no one should look at rankings and say that one school is clearly better than the next at all aspects, because ABC rankings says so. Each rankings group uses different criteria to rank Universities. The overall ranking of a school is far less important than the individual ranking of a department or major to an individual student looking to earn a degree and use this degree to apply for jobs. Having said this, to generalize and say that there is a clear cut off line (#50 as described by Stimpy) to define superior vs inferior schools is not a correct assumption. Many students graduating from schools ranked below #50 (including Pitt and Uconn and maybe even Ville) will be better educated and hold a more valuable degree than students from schools ranked above #50.