Now add the peripheral benefits of an acclaimed sports program. The boost they provide the local economies. The charities that benefit. School pride and so forth.
I just read a piece on that , for example ..
the article said and used LSU as the example ...
"on a game day weekend it pumps in 8.5 million to the local economy"
I don't have the link and don't have time to find it right now ...
if that is correct , I wonder if it is , that's a ton of money ...