"Duke supplements their baseball scholarship money with significant academic aid." When it comes to non-revenue sports, schools that have big academic endowments have a big advantage. They can offer academic financial aid that can make the difference in choosing a school. A half-scholarship at VT, with zero academic aid, means your school is half-paid-for. A half-scholarship at Duke or UVA or Stanford, with significant financial aid, can mean school is free. In the non-sports world, I have seen this play out over and over with the kids I've seen grow up in Radford. Kids around here grow up wanting to go to VT, and the ones who are good students apply to VT and UVA. If they get accepted at both, UVA's financial aid package embarrasses Virginia Tech's, and I've seen kid after kid from Radford go to UVA instead of VT, after spending their entire lives as Hokie fans. UVA has a $9.8 billion endowment, per Wikipedia, while VT has a $1.8 billion endowment. UNC has a $5.2 billion endowment. Stanford has a $36.5 billion endowment. That's why they won the Director's Cup for something like 25 straight years.