I've read that football teams are actually a revenue generator for universities.
However you're absolutely right about insane amounts of wasted money on bureaucracy.
However you're absolutely right about insane amounts of wasted money on bureaucracy.
Well... "a few" is probably more accurate.
https://twitter.com/tjaltimore/status/1763571057703723344?s=...
That's the athletic department as a whole. At my alma mater, which is on that list as one where the athletics department costs 500-1000 per student, our football team (which is consistently mediocre) and basketball team were, as far as I know, profitable, and subsidized other D1 sports. I believe that cost also covers the funding for things like intramural sports, the student athletics complex (gym), and various other athletics adjacent things that are student-services shaped, and not D1-sports shaped.
Meanwhile these 3rd rate sports programs keep getting sanctioned for giving athletes under the table scholarships, which isn't allowed in lower tier schools.
They do it for "prestige".