Roy, private-public, I got it. But it’s the effect of those
taxpayer subsidies that prompted my Wal-Mart analogy. And it is clear
that this article is just as, or maybe more, concerned with the effect
as it is the fact of taxpayer subsidies:  

[T]he joy of intercollegiate athletics is slowly being destroyed by
megaversities that take public dollars to drive the little guys off the
courts and fields
.

Sports Illustrated’s Frank Deford, lamenting the plight of small
Catholic colleges, recently captured that feeling of loss. Though long
ago driven out of football, he wrote, until just a few decades ago
small schools were still able to compete on a level basketball court.
But then “the NCAA expanded its field, big television money came in,
and large state institutions that had never cared much for basketball
wanted a bite out of the apple.” Now, “even the richest Catholic
colleges have trouble competing for the best players when the big-time
public schools can offer state-of-the-art facilities, special team
dorms, even chartered game flights. Frankly, it’s taken a lot of fun
out of college basketball.”

Which brings us back to the Duke Blue Devils. Hate them all you want,
but they are not the true devils of college sports. Those are the
mammoth state universities that steal from the taxpayers to achieve
dominance on the field, and in the process drive small schools ? and
the fun ? out of college sports.

(Emphasis added)