I did a study several years ago based on the publicly released revenue numbers for all 120 FBS schools at that time. The numbers were from the early 2000's because they run several years behind. At that time, there were roughly 80 schools, or 2/3 of the entire FBS membership, reporting they were making a profit from their football program. The top 20 or so were making huge profits, in the tens of millions up to as much as 50. The next 30 teams were doing OK, but profits were more in the few to several million dollar range.
One team that stood out to me was Vanderbilt. As a perennial SEC doormat, the Commodores were making a profit right at about a million a year. They were at No. 50 or so. From there down to near 80 the schools were reporting a small profit of less than a million down to negligble numbers, maybe a few hundred thousand. From 80 down to 120, the rest of the schools were losing money, some in the millions.
However, compared to FCS schools, the potential to make money from your football program exists almost exclusively at the FBS level. There are a number of FCS schools that manage to turn a small profit, but you can probably count them on one hand. The rest of them bleed nothing but red ink. That's why the trend over the past 15 years or more has been for FCS programs to upgrade to FBS. They are driven by the mere possibility they may one day get lucky and at least break even or make a small profit. Bowl games are the other incentive. Even a marginal, low payout bowl gets your school and program exposure. You can lose money on the bowl but the benefits from the exposure may outweigh that.
I do find it interesting that Idaho is downgrading to the FCS division. Whether or not that's the start of a trend I don't know. Some schools may be getting tired of chasing the elusive brass ring, especially the ones financially mired in the bottom third of the FBS division.
