Am I the only one who knows nothing about "Gonzaga" except that it has had some basketball success? Mention "Alabama", and I think football, and I am less interested in sports than most men.
Academics have generally resisted efforts to measure how much students are learning in a way that can be compared across schools. So if they don't like the emphasis on amenities, sports, and post-college earnings, they have partly themselves to blame. College is usually discussed by policymakers as an investment good, since it's tough to justify subsidizing fun. In reality, it is both investment and consumption.
I'm less interested in sports than Bostonian, and I somewhat agree.
College possess famous trademarks with value that is present in their *trademark* intellectual property (through the Lanham Act, etc.) because of sports.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanham_ActTheir commercial fame is related to sports as well as academics.
These are dual purpose entities with a truly commercial arm.
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