Sorry I'm not wrapping my head around this. Donor is a Nebraska resident, pays taxes and foots the bill to buyout coach. How are my tax dollars going to said-coach?
Only if those projects are being paid for by taxpayers.
Is money being diverted to payoff any of the previous regimes?
Projects being delayed have nothing to do with where money comes from.
Nebraska donors that live in the state are taxpayers. You are a taxpayer, but not the only taxpayer. If those donors are contributing money that is used by the university to pay off riley, then some Nebraska taxpayers are footing some of that bill to riley, just not all of them. If you had said tax money is not being used, you might have been more accurate, but I qualified that scenario and those funds by my other statements about diverting money from other projects.
And yes, if any money is being diverted from any other university projects or programs, or for the benefit of students, or the school, then the university has to make that money up from other funds to do those things--and very possibly from tax dollars .
Remember, the university is, obviously, owned and run by the state and the state, (thus the taxpayers of the state), own it. (It's like the government governs us because we give it permission to--i.e. the consent of the governed). There is no way the university pays for itself.
Even the athletic department subsidizes funds to the university for other programs outside the athletic department because it is part of, and owned by, the university, obviously, and not a separate entity in and of itself, like a corporation, for example.
So, if money is channeled by the athletic department to riley, then that leaves less money that is given by the athletic department back to the university for student needs. This can be made up in different ways, like increasing student tuition/fees, increasing ticket prices, diminishing student services, etc.
But regardless of how it is done, that money has to be made up in some way,eventually, by students and/or their parents, (the majority who are state taxpayers), donors, (some of which are taxpayers), or the university foundation, which, likewise is not a separate entity and is established for the benefit of the student body for improving their lives and environment, which could have to be supplemented, eventually, by tax money or by students.
So, if the money comes from anywhere associated with the university, then the taxpayers, (not necessarily all of them, but indirectly could be), who "own and operate" the university, are, technically subsidizing that money.
In a sense, it's
loosely kind of like how the federal government can still control and manipulate private universities with title nine and other types laws. If there is any federal money, including grants, research subsidies, federally insured student loans, etc., going to that university, whatsoever, then they can threaten to cut off those funds to manipulate how that school operates, to a large extent.
Even though that money is not going to any athletic budgets, they figure all the money is sort of going to a common pot, and the feds will and do, to an extent, dictate how their athletic departments operate, to a certain extent. In other words, they figure all the money is inter-related.
That's what I am saying--all the money is inter-related and not in a vacuum or separate compartment, so to speak.
If the money is going to riley or any other regime, then, obviously, its not going to other, necessary (as determined by the regents, the foundation, other committees, etc.) things, thus the taxpayer may have to make that money up for those other things.