Academia's "Prestige Principle"

Invisible Adjunct has a post up on the prestige principle in academic hiring decisions. I'm not yet at a point where I can say much about this, but I thought I'd call it to people's attention. One thing I've noticed about academics is that it tends to have more peculiar quirks than I perceive in most professions, though in this case it may just be a combination of the importance of personal networks in hiring decisions and the better resources available at usually wealthy "prestige institions."