This feels charmingly naive. The SEC is getting $300 million per year from TV rights to football games. Surely the marginal amount donated by athletes versus non-athletes is not the reason we've ended up with the college sports industrial complex.

No, but at places like Ivy League schools it's a big reason why there is still preferential treatment toward athletes.

All the traits that make someone better at sports make them better at earning money too. Extroversion, communication skills, competitiveness and physical energy almost certainly aren’t worth a much as intelligence but when would they hurt?