I went to UF. The athletic department is completely self-funded through donations, sponsorships, media rights deals, ticket sales, etc., and actually contributes about $5mm per year back to academics.
While that's true I don't think it is actually as compelling of an argument as it sounds on first blush.
I went to UF and I used to receive weekly emails asking for donations to the athletic program that I wasn't able to unsubscribe from without telling them that it was illegal to spam without any way of unsubscribing. I never to my memory got email asking for donations for anything educational.
A significant portion of alum just want to donate $X and it goes to the athletics department because of how the university is choosing to allocate it's fundraising, not because that is how individuals actually care to donate.
I went to UF and I used to receive weekly emails asking for donations to the athletic program that I wasn't able to unsubscribe from without telling them that it was illegal to spam without any way of unsubscribing. I never to my memory got email asking for donations for anything educational.
A significant portion of alum just want to donate $X and it goes to the athletics department because of how the university is choosing to allocate it's fundraising, not because that is how individuals actually care to donate.