First of all all, athletics was losing a lot of money in the MWC era. Second, you're drastically underestimating the change in expenses over the past 6 years.
Patterson's salary has doubled. The trove of assistants have gone through the roof, plus we've added more coaches, analysts etc. Jim Christian wasn't making $1M. Dixon makes $3.2M. His staff is also much more expensive than past staffs. You can keep going down the list - Schloss, Saarloos and Mo, Pebley, Kramer and Roditi, and CDC himself.
Big 12 travel is roughly the same as MWC travel if we were using the same methods. But we aren't. For example MBB travels charter now. They were traveling commercial. We are recruiting across the country and in some cases world, and those travel costs are much, much higher.
Big time athletics means big time athletics marketing. From tv ad quality to the fancy season renewal packets and street banners - everything costs more to put out and advertise a quality product.
Our programs are more successful. We're traveling minor sports to more NCAA tournament events - which are net money losers.
Look at the facility growth. New AGCS costs a lot more to upkeep than old AGCS. Just look at the number of square feet now vs. 2010. Those bills have to get paid.
More people at sporting events means more contract workers - concessions, security, janitorial, etc.
And perhaps most of all it costs money to keep up. Every P5 program is scraping for Loren money to get a competitive advantage. Comparing Big 12 TCU to MWC TCU is pointless. You have to compare Big 12 TCU to Big 12 Baylor, Pac 12 Stanford, ACC Clemson, B1G Nebraska, SEC Arkansas, etc. That's the competition - not a 2010 mid major.
And let's not forget that we are still playing catch up. Our peer programs have been in a higher financial tier than us for a long time. We just started getting full revenue in summer 2016.