Daryn,
When I get back to the office, I will send you some thoughts I have jotted down on this very subject.
Your professors have done a recent article in Golf Management on this very subject, using a local course you know well as the subject.
If you check my Cybergolf series, I did a column with a useage chart showing how superintendents use their computers to manage water.
Years ago, I did some studies in Asia, where we figured out chances of a grass plant dying with reduced watering. As you may know, superintendents water according to the "checkbook theory" basically replacing water lost to ET. Of course, in the desert, that is required. The gist of my theories is that in other areas, since turf can survive on only 33% of its field capacity of water, that reducing watering from ET to say 80% of ET, and counting on rain every so often (it would have to vary regionally) that overall watering would be reduced not only because there is a greater chance that rain will not be wasted, but because the plants would eventually learn to use less water because they have deeper roots.
Now, that isn't a new theory, but it seems that many supers have gone away from the deep infrequent watering to small applications every night, for consistency.