An objection might be that athletes have good metrics. But this ignores selection effects. Athletes have good metrics in part because there is money to be made in finding good metrics and then arbitraging against teams who use worse metrics. See Moneyball. Universities do draft elite intellectuals, and that is partially based on how much money that intellectual will be able to bring to that university. University donors want to affiliate with elite intellectuals.
An objection might be that athletes have good metrics. But this ignores selection effects. Athletes have good metrics in part because there is money to be made in finding good metrics and then arbitraging against teams who use worse metrics. See Moneyball. Universities do draft elite intellectuals, and that is partially based on how much money that intellectual will be able to bring to that university. University donors want to affiliate with elite intellectuals.