There’s the Football Performance Center, where Oregon has upholstered chairs with the same leather that lines Ferrari interiors.
There’s the learning center known as the "Jock Box," a cube-shaped, 40,000-square-foot facility bordered by a reflecting pool.
James W. Earl, an emeritus professor of English, is among those who have long argued that Oregon has let its academic core wither while athletics flourished. "For the last 15 to 20 years, it really has come down to a battle between the two forces, and athletics won," Mr. Earl says.