Division I schools are expected to pass money down to D-II and III schools through making donations to the NCAA. The NCAA acts as the administrator to make sure that no school is overlooked. The problem now has arisen that because the basketball tournament went in the hole this past season there is not as much money in the kitty as there had been and now that the College Baseball World Series has also been cancelled, the money supply is even shorter.
For example, just last year, $30 million was passed on to D-II schools, which here in PA is mostly comprised of state schools. That money has shrunk to between $5-8 million. Some of that money was to be shared with the D-III schools to help run their sports programs. I can't speak for other states, but here in Pennsylvania, most of our D-III schools are private institutions, which means that they are able to accept private funding. Nonetheless, getting money from past graduates to add to the endowment funds is going to be tricky and even then if that should occur and be successful, some schools have it stated in their charter or constitution that endowment funds cannot be used for any athletic programs and must be used to aid in helping with those students that would normally qualify for subsidized tuition money. IOW, low income families.
Meanwhile, D-I schools will be keeping most of their money for their own programs. Just look at the University of Arizona. They have 45,000 on campus students and 16,000 employees, which includes professors and assistant professors and then the remainder is support help. How much money do you think it would cost to run that type of Institution? IDK myself without looking it up, but whatever that number is, I'm sure it would be enough to raise a lot of eyebrows.