Athletics is just marketing for schools. Schools like OSU get 100s of millions of dollars in free advertising from their games being on TV, word of mouth, and random people who have had no connection to the University whatsoever being a walking billboard for the school by wearing their hats and shirts.
The problem is everyone wants to be a Texas, OSU, Michigan, etc. but thats not achievable. They drown in debt due to delusions of grandeur. No different than when Proenza tried to rapidly expand Akron's campus falsely believing if he builds it, they will come.