About 15 years ago my first College roommate became the CFO of Temple University. He told me that part of his job consisted of preventing the AD from losing to much money. Alabama is likely an anomaly as only about 30 of the D1 Football programs turn a profit and the rest lose money. The rest of ALL football programs at all levels from D1 to NAIA all lose money.
Men's College Basketball is the only sport with the potential to be profitable on a large scale. There are less than 5 (out of 355) Women's VB Programs and less than 10 profitable women' basketball programs. Essentially any sport that you don't have to pay a ticket for is a money loser as well as sports where the average ticket price is $10 or less and/or where you see little to no corporate advertising.
He told me that they consider Football as a loss leader - hoping that Homecoming drives University Donations and a cut of that goes to the AD.
I suspect that GMU - as well as most other Universities look similar, but with GMU not having the revenue and costs associated with football, and all other profits and losses scaled down.
The AD has a tough job - profit maximization of the Men's Basketball Program and loss Minimization of the other sports, made more difficult by now having to share revenues with select sports/players.
From the article:
i.e. no fired coaches' buyouts
