I don't know who made the comment about the endowment, but they clearly don't have the first hint of a clue as to how Vandy's athletic department is structured under the umbrellas of the University.
The Vandy athletic department is literally a department within a college at the university.
With that said, it could be a little easier to hide endowment giving to support athletics, or at least make it slightly more difficult for those seeking to find out that information because the endowment giving would be to an academic college.