To deal with the subject of universities will never be out of place. We are talking about an institution with centuries on its shoulders; an institution that must be in a constant and systematic renewal process if it wishes to sustain itself in time, satisfying the need for a better understanding of the society it is inserted. On that premise, the central purpose of this essay is to reflect about some variables that affect the quality of the services that these institutions render to their respective communities. The pinball game, famous on the 80's, has been taken as a reference for this essay, as a means of finding similarities between the mechanisms of the game and how bureaucracy works in some academic organizations, considering its causes and consequences. In general terms, it is concluded that when bureaucracy stops being a means to an end and becomes the end in itself, as a result of the lack of knowledge of its management and the opportunism of certain actors, its viability is in risk.