Especially at state-supported institutions, there is pressure for athletic departments to pay their own way. That forces athletic administrators to look at which sports are bringing in the revenue and which sports are a financial drag. Taxpayers are not thrilled about paying for deficits in athletic departments. There are a host of obscure programs that exist at every university which, given a line-item veto, taxpayers would never vote to fund. But athletics, with its high visibility, is different.
Taxpayers pay attention when their dollars are used to cover athletic department deficits.
An institution dependant on taxpayer support is not in a great position to make an argument that, for instance, funding a golf team or a swimming team, at a per-student cost nearly equal to tuition, is a vital educational program. Such programs are not essential for recruitment at a state-supported institution. And the tuition those athletes pay, assuming they are not on scholarship, barely covers the cost of the program, let alone the other educational programs the student uses. Athletic administrators who now confess, like it or not, to being firmly in the entertainment business went to the same graduate schools as Cobber administrators and coaches. They learned, if they didn't know already, that participation in sports can be a maturing cauldron that allows a young person that spark of synthesis which brings meaning to his or her entire educational experience.