Is it that the sort keeps alumni focussed, or that the Uni spends its effort on making alumni focus on it?

Perhaps a focus of academic achievement would be equally engaging -- I know that's what engages me wrt my alma mater.

Was going to say something similar, but I guess in the early 2000's the articles were basically saying that all but a few of the top schools were losing money hand over fist on their athletic programs. Basically most of the sports don't pay for themselves, and if your a small school unable to make bank on TV/ticket/merchandising/etc deals for the football/basketball team its a giant amount of red ink to build those stadiums and pay for the exorbitant coaching, and support staff, equipment, etc.