What does it actually cost though?You must believe the DIA runs a very large budget surplus. The below article is very outdated (2015), but it shows that only around 1/3 of the 300+ student athletes were on full scholarship at the time (not sure how the numbers look today). In short, the DIA would have serious financial issues if it provided each athlete a full scholarship.
![]()
Athletic scholarships at Illinois by the numbers - The Daily Illini
With football players garnering the largest chunk of Illinois’ athletic scholarship dollars, it creates a financial balancing act for the rest of the sports.dailyillini.com
300+ student athletes at a school of 40k is absolutely nothing. Tuition + room and board from them is a drop in the bucket for the University.
You're giving them half of a dorm room and a meal plan. Everything else already exists so it's not going to cost the University anything to have a student athletes attending classes since that class exists either way.