The free advertising on the biggest stage and the name brand value for Ohio cannot be measured. Having good athletics programs only deepens the loyalty and pride alumni have. I like McDavis because he is passionate and continued to put resources towards his goal of improving athletics despite all the faculty and media detractors. It's paying off now.
This! I have always loved just how loyal OHIO alumni are to our school [just teared up again], even when our athletics were nothing to brag about. I graduated after the knorr era ('01-02 to '04-05) and even though I did see a Men's tournament team, it wasn't exactly a bright spot in our athletic history. At that time, every OHIO alum I knew had ~30 pieces of OHIO wear and LOVED our school. All of us followed athletics as a way to stay close to and support the University: its hard to listen to Russ and Rob call the Marshall/Rhodes fellowship announcement, even though we win more than our fair share of those. I'm serious, we in those days we had THE BEST alumni following in the country when one considers the record on the on field product (no disrespect intended to those who were on the field at the time, I know they played their hearts out.). But since then, EVERY OHIO ALUM I KNOW is open in their OHIO pride, even the english lit. majors who at the time would have been ashamed to be rooting for something as bourgeoisie as intercollegiate athletics.