There is no market in which you have to compete against the new (superior) competitor so the only tool you are left with are fallacies like referring to regulations and proper protocol.
Also this incident makes Yale look really bad... This could end some careers.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crony_capitalism for details on political abuses, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barriers_to_entry for examples of these fallacies.
There's no such thing as open market as long as there is also government and regulation (not that government or regulation are bad or anything).
But you're right, they're not the only tools. They're just (unfortunately) the strongest ones for those than can wield them.