The University of Texas is one of the nation's few self-sufficient athletics departments, thanks largely to investments like the new $176 million stadium expansion. The renovation will increase seating capacity to 94,000, and the school plans to use its multi-million dollar 135-by-55 foot Jumbotron to fuel the school's ever-advancing advertising revenue, which has increased by 1,600 percent since 1993.

Texas is clearly one of the fortunate few that are able to stay in the black, but how can other (less-financially flush) institutions keep their heads above water? Most non-Division I FBS schools aren't bringing in enough revenue to even make the football program profitable, much less use its revenues to fund the rest of the athletics department (like Texas does). Is this a case of needing money to make money?

Chris Plonsky, Texas' women's athletics director, explains this successful advertising strategy to the Daily Texan: "There aren't many ways you can get the direct exposure you get by advertising to a stadium with 94,000 people in it. Plus, college students are a wheelhouse for many of these companies that are trying to attract them as future employees once they graduate."

While other high-profile Division I schools are able to take on these large-scale investments, few see the immediate financial success like Texas (hence only about 20 athletics departments have positive cash flow). While the reasoning for this probably goes much deeper than advertising revenues in the football stadium, it would be interesting to see if other schools have witnessed similar increases thanks to advertising over the last decade and a half. What does this say about the school's brand? Is the brand inherently valuable to advertisers, and if so, what makes certain brands more popular than others? Do lower-profile Division I schools and Divisions II and III institutions have any prayer of tapping into the advertising coffers?

Maybe a better question is, does an athletics department need to demonstrate concrete financial benefits to be valuable to the institution?