College rankings has nothing to do with the quality of education... what a fucking joke. No, it's not the only criteria, but it's a big one. I've actually worked in higher education in marketing and student advising (I know that a lot more than IT), and there is a huge discrepancy between students from different tiers of universities.
They might have a box to check off for a degree, but you can bet your ass they don't give two shits where that degree is from.
No, as I said, there are at least 3 categories they put degrees in. Not 26, but 3. Say a position gets 500 applications. They throw away those without a degree, since it's int eh description. They have 300 left. Throw out half that don't have the proper experience. Then throw out a few more for typos or whatever. They still probably have 40 good resumes and only 20 interview slots. That's when they start throwing away the University of Phoenixes. Depending on their understanding of WGU, that might go too. Elite colleges are highlighted, and then the generic rest, they don't care about those differences.
We aren't the business world.
IT is like... the third most important business function behind sales and marketing. What the hell? And the degree thing is changing rapidly. I take it you haven't been trying to get an entry level IT job in 2015, but I have been, and I can assure you that at least 50% of the postings I see require a degree, and most others consider it a plus. The only ones that don't mention it are typically small businesses like Managed Service Providers.
The IT guy they hand your resume off to that does the hiring isn't even going to give a flying fuck if you have a degree, he's going to want to know if your competent.
Unless he has a degree too. Then he realizes the value of it, especially when it comes to needing someone who can actually communicate like a professional.
If we were the business world, half of our industry wouldn't have a fucking job because tons of us don't have a formal education and wouldn't ever make it past HR.
This isn't 2000 anymore, where an MCSE printed cash. Every year more and more graduates are joining the workforce, trying to get IT jobs.
Those h1b visas that everyone is afraid of? They fucking come here, get degrees from state schools, and then stay here and get good jobs because "no american can fill this position" I'm sure the guy with the WGU degree is better than Mivishnu, who barely speaks English, but they need a reason to hire Mivishnu for 50% less salary, and the competition is not putting up a good fight if they have non-ranking online only degrees.
IT is a trade, and trade's are hired based on experience and competence
IT is changing... sure, there will always be the tradesmen positions and guys like you with the mentality that college is absolute bullshit and that anyone who has actually sat through a 3 hour discussion in a shakespeare class is a complete fucking dummy. But IT is becoming more important to businesses and with virtualization, cloud, etc, will require less people to set up servers and more people that can interact intelligently with other business departments, strategically plan things, demonstrate value to the board, etc.
Here is another, much more professional person's perspective https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ekf793zUhzg