The reality is the money doesn't get redirected; it just goes away. The millions of $ in conference payout disappears. The revenue from games disappears. The donations dry up. We'd like to believe people would donate to academics instead, but they won't. People donate for football seats and season tickets. Then there will be less revenue for the other sports, which would further strain the budgets. So it's more likely that athletic fees for students would increase, meaning students would end up paying more.