Culwell's letter is absolutely correct from a purely economics-driven perspective.  But it still completely misses the entire point.

That would be:  why are universities in the USA involved in sports in the first place?  Instead of merely academics?  And how many universities in the USA can actually show that their athletic department makes them money?  The answer: hardly any!

There is no justification whatsoever to having American universities spend untold millions of dollars every year on athletics.  For what?  Doing so has absolutely no value insofar as one's diploma's value is concerned.  It is time to sever big money athletics from the university system.  There is no justification at all to spending millions and millions of dollars on athletics, when 99.99 percent of the students at any university in the USA actually attend because of academics.  How many Harvard graduates rue these things?

It is high time that universities in the USA understand what their mission is.