

The federal Education Department is a very small department. It’s basically the college student aid program and (typically) non-controversial and often universal grants to state and local governments for K-12 stuff (like special education).
At major D-I schools, “revenue sports” like football, basketball (men’s and women’s nowadays but much smaller than football), and sometimes baseball or a random other sport turns a profit and funds the athletic department along with donors. Sometimes, there’s an “athletics fee” students pay that (ideally) funds things for a gym and intramural sports.
But generally, it’s donors. And college presidents keep sports around to advertise the school and keep alumni attached so they donate. A rich alumnus might not donate to sports but the college president wines and dines them at a football game.
Almost every FedSoc judge has connections to Leonard Leo and has probably gone to one those creepy Bohemian Grove retreats that was already creepy like a century ago. They can’t all recuse themselves or we’d have a democracy.
Not the female judges, of course. No women allowed at Bohemian Grove retreats — maybe some trafficked teens but no grown women. Grown women would probably react like how younger generations of men quietly changing clothes in gym locker room react when a creepy old man drying his saggy old balls on a bench makes direct eye contact and asks you a question.