[Fly Like a Duck]

The sole reason that many schools have the "minor" athletic programs within their school is because of Football and Basketball.

Largely, a school's athletic "budget" is made from game gate receipts. Of these gate receipts, football and basketball (boys and girls) account for roughly 80% or more.

I know of one school (for a fact) who brought in 55K in gate receipts last year, of that 55K, 23K of it was from football.

Football does just fine. Helmets have a 10 year life (as stated by the helmet manufacturers), and shoulder pads often have have about the same.

If football was given the cut they actually bring in, you'd see a lot more football programs a lot better off financially, but you'd also have some sports that wouldn't exist (or if they wanted to exist, it would be solely off of funds raised through their specific booster club).