I would say the Ivy League schools reached academic equalibrium through Athletics as well.
If you go back to the end of the 1800's and start of the 1900's, newspapers across the country used to publish Ivy League scores like they were local.
Before the SEC was established the Advertiser was one of those papers promoting Ivy League schools.
Now, unless you're Ivy League or a Stanford, Athletics is more important than ever in getting your name to stick with academians.
Even if they "think" they don't pay attention to sports.