My wife works in the college arena, on the business side supporting students. They are predicting the potential 25%-30% of colleges going bankrupt. This is absolutely about money, no matter what their endowment looks like. They are businesses run like a business and if income goes down, which has happened, schools will close down.
More and more students are choosing to go online for their education. The largest college, with a student population of over 130,000 is an online school. Students can learn at their own pace, when they want. They can binge learn just like they binge watch. It is no longer going to be a 4 year degree, but a degree. The days of expensive 4 year liberal arts schools are feeling the effect and a large percentage will go away.
Not saying that the big guys(Stanford, Harvard, Yale ,etc) will go away. There will always be room for the elite to still educate that way. However, the days where kids go to a 4 year school at very high costs, incur large debut from loans and come out with an unmarketable degree are coming to an end.
Yes, this will have an effect on sports programs. That's what your seeing in PA right now. Think about all the HS programs that cut programs like Music, Arts & other programs due to cost cutting. The same thing is going to happen at the college level, especially state schools. It may not happen all at once, but it's coming. Most in the academic world really dislike sports programs. They love the money some sports bring in, but overall they dislike that student athletes, whom they feel get favoritism over others. I remember when a professor told my student athlete son, that he has never had one of athlete students pass his class and that he should consider transferring. True story.
Anyway, big changes coming and Covid seems to be the trigger for this happening. College has become a booming business and the bubble had to break sometime.
JMO