If college sports are such a big thing, can't they fund it from TV revenue like most normal sports? Seems like there should be a firewall between university budget and sports budget.
They do. I believe the big sports rake in big bucks (this is a continuous point), and subsidize other sports. It's not just football and basketball. There's a ton of programs at a given school, even at small ones.
It seems like niche, and women's sports would take the biggest hit if we approached it based purely on making money. I know someone that got a full ride for cross-country running. She would not have received that, if it were revenue based.
P.S. Whether "student athletics" is a good idea is beyond the scope of this discussion.
There is a firewall. Athletic departments are separate legal entities with separate budgets. They often report to the same board that the academic institution report to.
And as a percentage of income, TV revenue is a huge part of the revenue for non-capital expenses. SEC and Big 10 schools get on the low end of $40 million/year on TV revenue along. ACC will get close to that, but not sure because their network just launched. Pac12 could get that much, but that whole conference is mismanaged.
It certainly is a conflict of interest to provide education,scholarships,grants,food,and housing from the same budget that pays for stadiums,fields,coaches,and teams. Separate sports and education like church and st(the idealized version not the reality where governments are still deeply infected by church's).
