I don't know any OU faculty members, so I'll take your word on their irrational hatred. Though, I suspect there's plenty of rationality at the core of it. Maybe their hatred's since spiraled into something irrational, but I can see the argument in favor of drastic cuts to the athletics budget. I don't necessarily agree with all of them, but I think it's a stretch to write them off as irrational given where Ohio sits in the hierarchy of intercollegiate athletics.
To be clear, I'm talking about staff/administrators primarily - not faculty. Many faculty also wish athletics would go away...but they lack decision-making authority to do anything about it.
Administrators, on the other hand, have the ability to make decisions that hurt athletics. It's death by a thousand cuts. Units like admissions, finance, legal, OUPD, parking, human resources, etc. all can have a substantial impact on the day-to-day of Ohio Athletics.
In the past, athletics could typically go to McDavis and get things turned in their favor. Or, perhaps more importantly, units like those above wouldn't make decisions designed to harm athletics because they knew McDavis was watching. Now, there is no one in the upper administration that looks out for athletics. That is a dangerous spot to be in for any unit (at a university or in the corporate world).