Take a look at the payouts for the bowls - http://www.statisticbrain.com/college-bowl-game-payouts/
Only the newest and very minor bowls are less than $1 Million. The Championship Game last year paid out $22 Million - PER TEAM.
yes, I know the big bowls, and of course the play off games, are HUGE. Also remember that bowl pay outs are against a guaranteed allottment of tickets that the schools promise that their fans will buy. There are times where bowl appeareances have COST teams on net - smaller bowls of course, but still.
But you know, someone has to pay for the lacrosse team, the swimming teams, the baseball team, the soccer team, the gymanstics team, and ALL women’s sports.
I mean the big programs bring in zillions of dollars. But that pays for everything else. Many schools, smaller schools with smaller fan bases, lose money on athletics. For example, Duke and Miami and Wake Forest almost always lose money on football.