“No FSU graduate puts on his resume or interviews for a job saying they are in the same conference as Duke and Virginia,” Haggard told Warchant.com. “Conference affiliation really has no impact on academics.”

Haggard might be a loose cannon, but that's a fairly accurate assessment of the impact of athletic conference affiliation's effect on a school's academic reputation, IMO. And that's a direct quote from a BOT representative at a BCS university, not an Internet forum keyboard jockey.