Because I think there is enough discretion in GAAP combined with the ability to shift costs/revenue inbewteen the foundation and the athletic department that you can probably color within the lines and still have a lot of control over how much margin you show. Plus there are things like how to allocate SEC TV money across sports. Obviously football is the majority of that and men's basketball next, but I would assume there is a pretty broad range of acceptable ways to allocate that money.
I was told when I was in school by Bracky that baseball almost broke even. That was a while ago and we obviously make more money now and spend more money now, so I can believe we make money or lose money. And I suspect it's close enough either way that we could exercise some discretion in accounting to move it one way or the other if we wanted. If we show it losing money, I don't really have any reason to think we aren't, but I get why some people might think that doesn't show a completely accurate picture.
Maybe somebody that audits a school athletic department and/or foundation can tell me all that's wrong though and there's not enough discretion to meaningfully change the margins shown.
