Having a football program can be looked at like milk in a grocery store.
You put it in the back and you don't always make much profit on it.
Because people come into the store for it, and while there they walk past, and end up buying, other products.
Having the milk available benefits the sale of all the other products.
Having a D1 football program, even if usually losing games rather than winning, helps get you into the ACC power conference.
Once in that conference, all the other sports, from soccer to volleyball to basketball to swimming to baseball to softball to .... all benefit from being in among top competition with lots of national visibility.
If you drop the milk/football, then not likely to get the customers/get into or stay in a power conference, and then all the other products/sports get far less attention and sales/top athletes and would tail off.
You put it in the back and you don't always make much profit on it.
Because people come into the store for it, and while there they walk past, and end up buying, other products.
Having the milk available benefits the sale of all the other products.
Having a D1 football program, even if usually losing games rather than winning, helps get you into the ACC power conference.
Once in that conference, all the other sports, from soccer to volleyball to basketball to swimming to baseball to softball to .... all benefit from being in among top competition with lots of national visibility.
If you drop the milk/football, then not likely to get the customers/get into or stay in a power conference, and then all the other products/sports get far less attention and sales/top athletes and would tail off.