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Regarding the Cassini probe, not all ROI is short-term; there are long-term investments as well. Today's theoretical physisist may discover how to make Cold Fusion a reality in 50 years!

Regarding Sports, ironically they do give a ROI for the university, but not all sports. The big sports, such as football, basketball, and hockey in the Northern US, all make a profit for the school. In fact, some college football programs can turn a $20M - 30M profit on winning a national championship. The problem here is when you run into Title IX. Yes, you are subsidizing your local women's lacrosse team. And no, nobody's watching.

Read my post on setting up a commodities market for education funding.

not all ROI is short-term. There you go. We need to evolve in as many arenas as possible because we cannot determine per se which fields are guaranteeing the best ROI. In the end, the combination of science, arts, engineering and economics will propel the society forward. Thus, I would not want to curb a student's enthusiasm for a psychology degree by subsidizing his program less than others.

Re Sports, so you have return for the institution. What if I were a famous writer/psychologist/economist and people flocked to my lectures to hear me, and I could increase tuition fees dramatically? This would be a similar return. As an example, Stephen Hawking works on topics that are as zero-ROI as they come. Yet, he is a shingle for Cambridge. Which enhances the reputation for the institution which creates other non-tangible assets.