Academic leaders are not sure how to deal with for-profit universities, especially those that offer degrees online. One perspective is that they may disappear, victims of criticism, fraud, and abuse. However, thoughtful analysts believe that an Internet revolution is transforming higher education worldwide. If that is true, educators had better understand the larger forces reshaping higher education. Some people in America today still light candles at evening meals and ride on horseback, but illumination and transportation technologies have changed how most people read after sundown and get around the community. Higher education has resisted many changes, except at the edges, until now. The most dominant force in the new arena of higher education is the University of Phoenix, a for-profit college. For the first twenty years of its existence, Phoenix offered degree programs mostly in conventional classroom spaces. However, half of the 280,000 Phoenix students now pursue their studies online, with the rest at 239 campus centers in 36 states. The University of Phoenix, which charges $12,000 a year in tuition, reported net income (profits) of $271 million in 2004, more money than many nonprofit colleges generate for annual operations. Its parent, the Apollo Group, has announced plans to expand to China, India, and Mexico. In this article, the authors present mega-trends that fuel the success of the University of Phoenix and other entrepreneurial colleges, as well as reasons why most universities will remain loyal to conventional instruction and decline to grow aggressively online. They discuss the drawbacks and challenges posed by the rapid expansion of for-profit and online instruction.