College sports accounting is a lot like movie business accounting. Besides, it's part of the advertising budget for recruiting and raising alumni contributions.
One of my many interesting offspring scholarshipped himself to an Ivy League outfit to play hockey. Whereupon he was injured permanently and will never foul another hockey player again(hockey, you know?) They changed the deal a bit, but essentially let him finish on their dime + a campus job in the athletic department.
Now take a decidedly non-Ivy League football/BBall player in a Big-10 program who majors in something like African-American Theory of Cursive Rap Communications and gets permanently injured. The "School," IMNVHO owes this kid (and his families and by sophomore year multiple offspring) something. The boy helped make'em some serious money. At the very least they should have some form of disability insurance for him; some way to financially ease him gracefully into the real world or the Obama Administration.
My olde school once had a big time sports program .... but now has "student-athletes." Yeah, we'll still scholarship you, but in addition to your athletic ability, you have to have academic qualifications, as does any other Freshman, and we don't have any crap courses (well not too many) either.
College should not be just a housing and training facility for the NFL, or any other professional sport. It's college, not the minor leagues.
Some of the smaller schools DO lose money on their sports programs.