Team sports like football, basketball, soccer, and rugby are hugely popular the world over, on both college and professional levels, and such popularity means that they are big business. Very big. Broadcasting rights alone bring in billions: ESPN paid $5.6 billion to broadcast college football playoffs for twelve years; Turner Sports/CBS shelled out $10.4 billion to show the national college basketball tournament through 2024; and the most recent NBA TV deal came in at a cool $26.4 billion.

As the rewards for winning have increased, it's no surprise that sports team budgets have followed...