I already told you. As an intercollegiate athlete, you learn things from the shared discipline, sacrifice and dedication you don't learn in a classroom. Most universities believe in educating the students outside of the classroom as well, providing experiences they wouldn't have at a for-profit school like Strayer or Kaplan -- it's why you have Athletics Departments and Student Affairs, and SGA, and Greek Life, and study abroad programs, none of which are revenue generating or cost effective.
I mean, why have a radio station, a TV station, a newspaper, intramural sports, free concerts, spring and fall festivals, provide space on campus for things like the Black Student Union and the Gay-Straight Alliance, host events like Fall for the Book (those writers get paid by the university to come, they don't just come for free), and do why we have things like the Performing Arts Center and offer free movies on campus? Because it's about providing a diverse student experience, and attracting a diverse student body.
I'm not sure what you are talking about with more cost effective programs either. Athletics funding and academic funding are two completely different things. If you cut $5 million from athletics, it's either going right back into the student's pockets via a reduction in student fees (highly unlikely), or it's going to go into the remaining 14 sports (much more likely, and actually reduces the number of students impacted). JMU is a prime example of this. No matter how much they said, "we aren't cutting these sports to give more money to football, everyone knew that's exactly what they were doing."
So my guess is you don't think our basketball team has the money it needs to be successful and they need more of it. To that, I would say our recruiting budget is higher than vcu's and they still outrecruit the crap out of us.
And here's another thing to think about, would some of our athletics facilities be as nice as they are without those programs to support them? The Aquatics and Fitness Center and RAC specifically -- why spent $24 million renovating the RAC if we didn't have mens and womens volleyball and wrestling and all it was there for was for was some PE classes?
