Funding Synchronized Swimming

I have spent many words on this blog and elsewhere bemoaning the corporatization of college football, and usually do not get much of an argument. But hidden at the bottom of Stewart Mandel's SI.com mailbag is a relatively straightforward counterargument that has never occurred to me:

It's a double-edged sword. We want to create as many opportunities as possible for student-athletes in a variety of sports, but the fact is, it's expensive to send an entire swimming team to Ann Arbor -- not to mention their scholarships, their equipment, their coaches' salaries, etc. -- for a meet that's going to bring in no ticket or television revenue whatsoever.

According to the NCAA's 2001 survey, the average Division I-A football program brought in $10.9 million in revenue, men's basketball $3.6 million, the other sports $780,000. After expenses, the football teams had a $4.8 million profit and men's basketball $1.7 million, while the other sports lost $1.5 million. So while, yes, major college football and basketball has become disgustingly big business, if we scale it back, you can kiss a lot of golf and wrestling teams good bye.

Food for thought.