Doesn't seem like a threat to me. If the government doesn't have money, it shuts down. Happens all over America every year at the city, state and national level. When that happens, only critical services remain available. Hard to argue that a university is a critical service.
It's hard to respond without being completely non-sports but this entire approach is disingenuous and only people who seem to applaud overreaching, bloated government seem to approve of this behavior.
First, let's be clear here. LSU football makes money. Any losses on the part of the athletic department is a result of, you guessed it, bloated over-reaching government. Secondly, in a rational world, it would be possible to keep the revenue positive aspects of a university going even if you have to shut down the areas that are without a doubt wasting millions of taxpayer dollars.
The trick that politicians have used, in Alabama, and nationally is disgusting and honestly this is why we see outsiders running strong campaigns. Politicians have become disgusting, despicable extortionists. What happened when the federal government shut down? They actually found the money to employ people to barricade monuments
in public view! They closed down public roads, as though the road was going to misbehave if a politician wasn't getting paid. They employed people, spent money taking punitive measures against American citizens because they were not getting their way. In Alabama they've threatened things they thought people cared about, rather than doing common sense thing and shutting down wasteful programs.
There simply should be no tolerance for this behavior. Now, should LSU's athletic department behave themselves financially? Sure, should their football program? Sure, should the university as a whole? Absolutely, but the problem is not funding, it's waste and the waste does not come from a profitable football program.