Hmm, a paper on athletic success and giving concludes "Both alumni and non-alumni show an increasing preference toward directing their gifts to the intercollegiate athletics department-at the expense of the donations to academic programs. Sperber’s (2000) assertion that giving to athletics undermines academic giving is strongly supported."

Here is athletic giving and academic giving in this period of Ducks success:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0R3qjKd4ORY/TqLv2sTGnLI/AAAAAAAACjg/GvXG52lVPi0/s640/Screen+Shot+2011-10-22+at+9.30.56+AM.png

Athletic giving is clearly up. Academic is up and down but starts and ends around the same place.