Basketball and the College Application Process

It's been over four years since I began the process of looking for the college that I would one day spend four years of my life at. It was an exciting, yet stressful time. My brother, who is a high school senior, is now in the midst of the decision making process as well, narrowing down his list of schools that he will apply to. Over the years people have asked my opinions on various schools and never once have I been in a position where I haven't been able to comment. More often than not though, I really dont provide any information that would be useful to the applicant. My reason for knowing so many more schools than the average human being: college hoops.

Friend: Joey what do you think about UNH, I hear they are an up and coming state school?
Me: Well...I'm a big fan of the America East Conference.

My mother for one reason or another was a big fan of Villanova when I was starting to look at colleges. I told her I couldn't see myself going to a school that had failed to lock up any top flight recruits for what would have been my junior and senior years of school. Boston University was another school that was proposed as being a good fit for me. As much as I love Mid-Major basketball, I needed something like the ACC.
At times I feel like I have accumulated more useless information about colleges that will never be useful to really anyone.
My brother showed a lot of interest in Quinnipiac and my mother asked what I thought of the area, and what did I know about the academic record of the school. My response was that the Bobcats had posted a 14-15 record in the last year, but with seven seniors on this years squad, it was certainly an up and coming school.
Every school that I applied to, save for one, was in a major sports conference. That isn't to say that I chose to attend Maryland purely based on ACC athletics. The school has one of the best journalism programs in the country, and that was a major factor in my decision, as well as the proximity to Washington DC, a fantastic city. However, when I did begin to look for schools, I relied on what I knew: college basketball. I could never tell you anything about East Tennessee State as a University, but I could certainly tell you that they won the Atlantic Sun Conference with a 16-2 record last season.
Will any of this knowledge ever help me in the real world? Probably not outside of the realm of sports. That doesn't mean I dont think its cool I know all of it though.