Big Dream, Rude Awakening - http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/30/sports...n-fbs.html

Although the school that this article talks about the majority of the time is UMass (and their move to the FBS level), note the following that is stated about UTSA on the 2nd page of the article [unfortunately the article refers to UTSA as Texas-San Antonio (which I know is upsetting in and of itself among us UTSA fans) but aside from this fallacy, it's still a pretty good article overall]:

"The motivations for the institutions making the step up are as diverse as their locales. Adding a football team, or moving up a notch in competition, is a far different undertaking in Texas than it is in Massachusetts.

When Lynn Hickey, the director of athletics at Texas-San Antonio, was asked why her institution started playing football last year and will fully jump to the F.B.S. level next year, she said: “We are in one of the largest cities in the nation, we had an empty dome across town and we’re in a state where football is king. But in Texas, you have to play football at the highest level.”

The empty dome was the Alamodome, and Texas-San Antonio, led by the former Miami coach Larry Coker, is averaging nearly 30,000 fans at its home games.

“Our corporate sponsorship revenue has quadrupled,” said Hickey, who added that donations have increased similarly. Like all institutions moving up, Texas-San Antonio has spent millions on football; so far, the team supports itself."