Sports are name recognition advertising for the schools. They also generate an affinity in potential students while they are still children as they follow the t

Sports are name recognition advertising for the schools. They also generate an affinity in potential students while they are still children as they follow the teams games. It also creates an affinity for the schools with the general population, which is politically advantageous, especially when the school wants their state to appropriate more funding. There are also some of the smaller schools who use slots on the sports teams as a way of boosting enrollment. Some Division III schools have nearly half the students on a team. Division III schools do not provide athletics scholarships so that expense doesn't exist but they do get tuition money from the student-athletes. Many of these schools don't care if you have talent or not, they're using the lure of being a "college athlete" and the ego boost it provides the student and their family, as an enrollment tool.