Jonathan,
I know you weren't criticising academics, and I didn't mean to imply that you were. I don't know any of the American posters on Ballad List personally so I'm not fully aware who is and who isn't an academic there, although going by the depth of knowledge I presume most of them are.

In the last 50 years this side of the pond we have had university departments that majored on folk material, but Child Ballads have not really featured in these. As I said the only one I can think of currently entertaining anyone with Child Ballad knowledge is Aberdeen, and even then it's mainly academics like Tom McKean, Emily Lyle, David Atkinson and Julia Bishop working in association on such as publishing and the Carpenter Collection.