“Where they were provided, USA TODAY found that the average public-school subsidy for athletics was $8.8 million.”
Too bad this number was not broken down by sport. By the way, if UC Berkeley were to win the Pac-10 (yeah, right!), they would get around $13 million for being in the Rose Bowl. This would be in addition to all of the other monies collected.
The reason that many of the public schools spend so much money is that if they get a winning program, they won't be spending the average on athletics.