Only regular nouns need apply

Funky Winkerbean's use of "girls basketball team" and "the boys team" sparked a discussion over on The Comics Curmudgeon over whether there should be apostrophe's there. A commenter dug up this:

the AP stylebook says: “Do not add an apostrophe to a word ending in s when it is used primarily in a descriptive sense: citizens band radio, … a teachers college, … a writers guide. Memory Aid: The apostrophe usually is not used if for or by rather than of would be appropriate in the longer form: a radio band for citizens, a college for teachers. An ’s is required, however, when a term involves a plural word that does not end in s: a children’s hospital, a people’s republic.”

And if that's not the perfect example of how totally illogical, inconsistent, and risible the "rules" of English can be, I don't know what is. The word's function changes depending on whether it's a regular noun or not? Because that is totally a hospital for children, right?