debt without anything but TV revenues to pay it off.

TX, OU, ATM, Michigan, Ohio State and a few big name schools used the debt to increase the size or quality of the stadiums which is a long-term investment with a huge payback in ticket sales, parking and concessions revenue and future donations....which is mostly required in order to buy tickets.

Not all debt is created equal. Even BYU would have to do something creative if it were to do a major overhaul of LES or even build a new stadium. We couldn't very well come up with $200M in a year or two.