Sorry, on a national level the problem isn't primarily the sports. The charts where these numbers come from cover "instruction, student support services, food services, enterprise operations, capital outlay, and interest on debt." It doesn't seem to include athletics (although I'm not sure what "enterprise programs" are). And still costs skyrocketed.

Anyway, we had football and all those sports in high schools when I was young. We also had band, orchestra, art classes, theater, shop, home economics, language classes, and a lot of other things. On less than half the expense per student.

That's not to say some schools aren't spending way too much on sports.