You definitely take a pay cut working in sports when comparing the salaries to those in similar roles in a non-athletics organization. However, there are definitely decent salaries out there once you get into the upper-mid level roles. Working in sports doesn't necessarily mean you have to be broke.
Networking is absolutely critical to landing sports jobs. When it comes to job postings at universities, many (I'd even say most) of the job postings you see are typically created for a specific person in mind, and the hiring organization only has the posting to fulfill some sort of hiring law or regulation. You have to network your ass off to get the inside scoop and become that person that the posting was created for.
Go find people that work in the sector of sports you want to be in on Linkedin. Read their profiles and get a general sense of their background, and then reach out either directly on Linkedin or on Twitter and see if they'd be willing to give you the opportunity to pick their brain. Find out how they got to where they are, and see what advice they'd be willing to share for someone trying to follow the same path. As a veteran (and if you're comfortable doing so), you're likely able to take advantage of your background and create a very unique "elevator pitch" style of cold message that would get a good response rate. Reach out to as many people as possible - I think you might be surprised at how many complete strangers will be willing to help.
Take total advantage of your status as a student as well. It's so much easier to ask for (and receive) opportunities while you're carrying the student label. If your financial situation can stand it, try your best to land an internship directly in the segment of sports you want to work in. There's a good chance the pay will be minimum wage (if anything at all), but that work experience and the people you interface with during the internship will be key to snagging a full-time role following graduation. And, when you get that internship,
do not treat it like an internship. Don't make it seem like you're just there to get experience. Treat every day as if it's a tryout for a full-time job. Every day you're busting your ass trying to stand out from the other interns so that after graduation you can count on solid recommendations from the full-timers in the department you worked in. Once again, that network is critical to landing a sports job.
One last thing - your chances of succeeding in finding a job in sports will increase substantially if you're willing to move. Use
this link and
this link to hunt for opportunities. If your goal is to work in major college athletics, do your best to start at a big school instead of attempting to work your way up from a D2 or D3 school. From what I've been told, it's incredibly hard to move up the ladder in athletic divisions if you start at a small school.
That's about all I have. A lot of it is common sense - work hard and constantly work to grow your network. Do whatever it takes to stand out. Take advantage of being a student. Keep these things in mind and you'll find success.