Athletics is marketing, and if you don't believe that it's necessary for UA to be marketing itself then you're naive...or an idiot, plain and simple.
The school doesn't exist in a vacuum. It can't simply be a university for students who reside in New York State. Why? Because students in NYS are also interested in schools in Michigan, Virginia, Massachusetts, Delaware, Maryland, Vermont, etc. The only way UA can compete and grow is to attract out-of-state students, and the only way to effectively communicate its value proposition to a national audience is through athletics! If you put a price on the amount of exposure we've received over the past 10 years, it would probably be 20-30x more than what we've spent on athletics. That's what we would call "positive ROI" folks.
I know I'm preaching to the choir