Good point. However, alumni donations are often strongly correlated to the performance of the sports teams (at universities with traditions of popular sports t

Good point. However, alumni donations are often strongly correlated to the performance of the sports teams (at universities with traditions of popular sports teams, anyway). Donations are a non-trivial part of a university's income stream. Also, a prestigious sports team can definitely boost undergraduate enrollment. It's effective advertising, as several people have pointed out. From an academic standpoint, I've seen the bad side of popular sports teams (_Heavy_ pressure on professors and TA's to give star players high grades despite a complete lack of attendance.). I personally feel like most (particularly in the southeast US) of the large schools with popular sports teams have absolutely awful undergraduate programs. That's partly just a function of being a large university, though. There are certainly negatives along with the positives.