While other progams are looking at a bottom line written in red ink, UT experienced a 20% increase in football revenue last year. According to the Wall Street Journal, it is thanks to having having the nation's biggest, wealthiest and most eccentric collection of college football boosters.
All the usual suspects are mentioned in the article: Red McCombs, Joe Jamail, Frank Denius, Tex Moncrief, Mike Myers, B. M. "Mack" Rankin Jr, etc.
And unlike Phil Knight at Oregon or Boone Pickens at Oklahoma State, UT Athletics Director Deloss Dodds said "You're better off having a bunch than one," because there is a tendency for one elite booster "to try to run it."
Of course alums with deep pocketbooks have more access and can freely express their opinions on the program. In 1997 the field was named after Joe Jamail. Then UCLA humiliated Texsa 66-3 early in the season. Jamail called Dodds and asked, "How much money will it take to get my name off that field?"