I would agree with the above posters:
1. Winning for a long time is more important for athletic donations than just a few years of winning.
2. Many athletic donations come from corporate donors, and the location in SE Ohio hurts in that regard.
I would add another point. Based on the analysis I did of endowment giving, winning in football will much more quickly have an impact on general fund giving than on athletic fund giving. I know that sounds strange, but that's what I saw. I attribute it to the fact that alums see the team on TV, and think about the old days at school, and that encourages them to give to the University, but not specifically to athletics.
Given the success of Ohio football in recent years, I would guess that donations to the Ohio general fund should be up quite a bit over a decade ago. To confirm my hypothesis, I decided to look it up. I found these
numbers for giving to the Ohio University Foundation. Reading the financials, these are the numbers listed for gifts:
Year ended June 30, 2005 $5.8 million, net assets $182.5m
Year ended June 30, 2006 $35.7 million, net assets $218.8m
Year ended June 30, 2007 $8.2 million, net assets $239.6m
Year ended June 30, 2008 $94.4 million, net assets $312.2 million
Year ended June 30, 2009 $23.4 million, net assets $266.7 million
Year ended June 30, 2010 $14.6 million, net assets $324.8 million
Year ended June 30, 2011 $27.7 million, net assets $385.6 million
Year ended June 30, 2012 $20.6 million, net assets $417.4 million
These don't exactly coincide with the improvement of the football team, but there is a very good correlation. There are no doubt other effects, not the least of which is the overall economy. Clearly the economy as a whole is not as healthy as it was in 2005, yet giving is at a much, much higher level today than it was back then. I think partly this reflects the performance of the football team, which in turn increases awareness in the University, and pride in the university.