College football is not big business vis a vis the rest of the school. Just because the number seem big to the public does not make it big in the overall scheme of a school's budget.
Let's take the biggest revenue football team last season, Texas. They generated $80 million in revenue last year.
Let's take a large government contract, Lawrence Livermore Labs. They received $1.5 billion in federal dollars last year.
I don't even know if Livermore is the largest government contract. I do know it is only one of several programs under the University of California. People want to pay players in a sport that generates a paltry $80 million which is part of an athletic department that more than likely loses money. This payment to players will trigger federal laws that will endanger $1.5 billion dollars. And this is only a fraction of federal monies which would be put in jeopardy. It makes no sense at all.
6/17/2011 12:57 AM (edited)