Never tell a college sports fan

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that college coaches are overpaid. I happened to mention on the bird site that I believed colleges paying football coaches multimillion-dollar salaries, providing them with houses and cars, and granting them huge bonuses when they have a good season was extravagant considering only 2.3% of college athletic programs bring in more money than they cost the school to run. "By any measure, college sports are a big business — but that doesn't mean universities are getting rich off athletics. The reality is that most sports programs operate in the red." (https://www.bestcolleges.com/news/analysis/2020/11/20/do-college-sports-make-money) The rest is made up out of mandatory student fees and redirecting tuition money from academics to athletics. Let me tell you - some of those college sports fans got very upset at the idea that it was wrong to force students to pay extra for the sake of keeping the college athletics program afloat. I finally muted them all and deleted the posts wherein I tried to explain the harsh reality. I should have known better than to rationalize with fanatics. Their feelings were hurt when they realized the $150 to $250 ticket they bought to go to the game was subsidized by students forced to pay additional fees whether they cared about the athletic program or not. I understand college sports are a big deal to some people. I have nothing against them. I simply believe that the program should be able to support itself, or it should be allowed to end rather than force students to pay more in addition to the already ridiculously high tuition and fees they already face. In case you're wondering, the athletic fees all students are forced to pay at many colleges can equal 10% or more of the basic tuition, adding thousands of dollars a year to their bill. Would you be willing to pay extra years' worth of interest on your student loans just to keep the athletic program at your college afloat?