posted by MontyBrunswickThe smaller conferences are going to take an bath financially from this. I wouldn't be surprised to see some schools give up programs as a result.
I'd be interested to know how much the average student's tuition is going to subsidize sports. It's hard to place a value on what football/basketball do as far as providing opportunities to fundraise from alumni.
But you've got all those scholarships and big coaching salaries on sports that lose money. All of them, including football even at schools in the MAC.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/oct/16/college-sports-revenue-loss-making-programs-academics
"The NCAA reported in 2016 that the average Division I school lost $12.6m annually on athletics if they don’t have a football team, and $14.4m if they do."
OK, so that's the average. $14.4M across, let's say 20k students is $770 per student per year. I think all-in-all that's probably a decent investment for the student. But with so many students struggling financially, that $4k over 5 years is pretty significant.